By Elise Castelli
Federal Times June 16, 2008
A top house Democrat wants the Defense Department inspector general to investigate more than 7,000 cases of fraud the lawmaker believes have occurred on contracts to support the Iraq war. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said that number is an estimate by his staff and that those cases involve more than $190 million in federal spending.
"It is difficult to have confidence that the department will take adequate steps to address the full magnitude of the potential criminal fraud," Waxman wrote to IG Claude Kicklighter in a June 16 letter. "I therefore request that your office assess the extent of potential criminal fraud in the expenditure of U.S. funds in Iraq. "
Waxman's staff came up with the projection based on a report issued by the Defense IG's office in May. That report sampled 702 transactions worth $1.5 billion and found 28 of them worth $35 million appeared to involve criminal misuse of funds.
The 28 cases represent roughly 4 percent of the total surveyed for the report examining transactions by seven Army contingency contracting officers in Iraq. Waxman's staff applied that 4 percent rating across the pool of 180,000 transactions worth $10.7 billion that those seven offices awarded - and came up with a figure of potential fraud.
Waxman said the IG's staff confirmed the projected number and value of criminal cases and stated that the issue merited further investigation. Kicklighter's staff also told Waxman that the Defense Criminal Investigative Service launched a new effort to review additional transactions for fraud.
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