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Private Contractors: KBR At It Again
Perhaps it just me, but when it comes to private contractors the news seems to just always be bad. While I initially had distaste for these companies, my views of the group have soured to the point where I just can’t quite stand to see their names anymore. After watching the revealing and shocking documentary Iraq For Sale, listed in the right side bar, I’ve kept my eye out for these corporate criminals. Unfortunately it seems, corporations like KBR and Blackwater Worldwide are eager to show us how worthless and disgusting they really are. In the most recent bout of lies, the Boston Globe reported a “tax loophole” exploited by KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton which holds $16 billion in contracts. Apparently KBR decided it would be a good idea to visit the Cayman Islands and leave a computer there. The computer was all they left in the tropics, but that didn’t stop them from claiming 21,000 employees working in Iraq as employees of two separate companies, one of which is called Service Employers International Inc. (SEII), that exist solely on a file of the lonesome computer. While the Defense Department knew all about the offshore account since 2004, they let it slide since it “allowed KBR to perform the work more cheaply, saving Defense dollars.” An interesting outlook considering KBR recently got into trouble for overcharging the government by millions of dollars. Unfortunately for the rest of America, KBR’s avoidance of somewhere around $500 million in taxes doesn’t bode well. "Failing to contribute to Social Security and Medicare thousands of times over isn't shielding the taxpayers they claim to protect, it's costing our citizens in the name of short-term corporate greed," said Senator John Kerry. Hardest hit are the employees of the company who won’t be receiving benefits. Employees of the company were hired without knowledge that they would not receive unemployment if they lost their jobs, nor that they would be deprived of retirement benefits. "They never explained it to us," said Arthur Faust, a 57 year old employee of KBR. While the company was quick to pretend employees belonged to another company they had no problem claiming them when hit with legal trouble. The Boston Globe article reports one such case: “In one previously unreported case, a group of Service Employers International workers accused KBR of knowingly exposing them to cancer-causing chemicals at an Iraqi water treatment plant. Under the Defense Base Act of 1941, a federal workers compensation law, employers working with the military have immunity in most cases from such employee lawsuits.” The Pentagon's Defense Contract Audit Agency began questioning KBR over its Cayman Islands account in 2004 but had no qualms about the company’s evasion. In an email exchange between the Boston Globe and the auditors, a Pentagon spokesman said the savings “are passed on” to the US military. Apparently as long as it’s the government benefiting, cheating on taxes is just fine. “Both KBR and the US military appear to regard Service Employers International and KBR interchangeably, except for tax purposes,” the article says. "Their whole mindset was deceit," said Henry Bunting, a man who thought he was working for KBR until he scrutinized his paycheck. Truck driver David Boiles didn’t know he was working for SEII either until he arrived in Iraq and his foreman told him. His military-issued ID card said KBR however. Danny Langford worked at a water treatment plant in Iraq in July 2003. After falling sick from the chemicals at the plant he was terminated. Upon filing for unemployment he was rejected due to the fact that he worked at a foreign company. "Now, I don't know who I was working for," he said. One of the two bogus companies was created a mere two months after Vice President Dick Cheney was appointed chief executive of Halliburton. Many view Cheney’s involvement with Halliburton and the no bid contracts KBR received for Iraq in 2002 to be intimately linked. Questions aimed at Cheney over this recent news have been referred to his personal lawyer – who hasn’t returned any calls. This latest scandal is hardly surprising to me after learning about KBR’s intentional destruction of equipment, endangerment of employees and other serious issues. One would hardly expect any sort of integrity or loyalty to employees after witnessing the many acts of reckless disregard it has engaged in. Private contractors enjoy virtual immunity in Iraq, why wouldn’t they think they're above the law at home as well? We’ve practically granted them free reign. |
The Boston Globe
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This intel was contributed by The Rift
The Rift
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May, 2012
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