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Tuesday 2 August 2011

'US contractor rips off Pentagon'

A US judicial report has revealed that, in an act of embezzlement, a US government contractor in Iraq has overcharged the US Department of Defense for items it sold to the Pentagon.


In a written statement, US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen said that a review found that the Pentagon contractor, Anham LLC, allowed its subcontractors in Iraq to charge the Pentagon USD 900 for a 7-dollar control switch, the Associated Press reported.

The overcharging also included requesting USD 3,000 dollars for a 100-dollar circuit breaker, and USD 80 for a piece of plumbing equipment worth USD 1.41.

Bowen's inspectors are seeking to review all Anham contracts with the US government in Iraq and Afghanistan, worth a total of about USD 3.9 billion.

Hassan Judeh, the administration director at Anham's headquarters in Vienna, declined to comment on Bowen's remarks.

In June, US auditors said as much as USD 6.6 billion in Iraqi reconstruction funds may have been stolen in "the largest theft of funds in national history."

However, the Pentagon insisted that all of the money remained under the Iraqi government control the entire time.

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