Outsourcing the war

Introduction

That was then . . .

Parsons Corporation ranks 10th in the Center’s compilation of top private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006. More broadly, in this, our second Windfalls of War project, the Center notes the observation of David Walker, comptroller general of the United States, who says that “outsourcing of government has escalated across the board over the past five years, although oversight of the process has shrunk during this same period.”

And this is now . . .

An audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction finds that Parsons received $142 million from the U.S. government to construct prisons, fire stations, and police facilities in Iraq that were never built or finished, according to The Washington Post. Associated Press, meanwhile, highlights the story of one Parsons-contracted prison in the flatlands north of Baghdad, which was begun but never completed. AP quotes the special inspector general, Stuart Bowen, who describes the prison as “a microcosm of the shortfalls in the reconstruction program.”

The inspector general’s office released the full audit yesterday on Parsons.