Pentagon Auditor Cites Heavy Fraud By Contractor

Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, also called on the Defense Department to do more to reclaim $100 million worth of overcharges paid to KBR subcontractors.

McCaskill and Collins are, respectively, the chairwoman and ranking Republican on a contracting oversight subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

In the letter to Gates, McCaskill and Collins also said that since the war in Iraq began in 2003, several KBR officials have been indicted or convicted of corruption-related charges involving LOGCAP subcontracts.

In her statement, Browne said that whenever discovered any wrongdoing by an employee, the company has quickly reported it to the government.

Stephenson cited KBR's heavy use of subcontractors as a trouble spot. There often was too little documentation "to justify the reasonableness of the prices and costs billed to the government," she said.

The contract audit agency "found many examples where KBR did not take aggressive action to obtain sufficient data from vendors that would have facilitated adequate analyses to ensure the lowest possible prices for the taxpayer," she said.