WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is seeking answers from the U.S. Army on what they will do to ensure that taxpayer funds are not wasted in government contracts.
“Ever since serving as Missouri’s State Auditor, I’ve worked hard to identify wasteful government spending wherever I see it, and get to the bottom of what we can do to save taxpayer dollars,” McCaskill said. “It’s essential that we continue to cut waste in government contracting, and I look forward to ensuring the Army takes steps to make their process more effective and efficient.”
Following a request from McCaskill, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently examined the Army’s contracting process and found significant problems. For example, the Army treats contracting funding as “use or lose” money rather than taking a more comprehensive look at how it contracts and whether the Army gets what it pays for. GAO made eight recommendations for how the Army can improve its contracting, and McCaskill wrote to Army Acting Secretary Robert M. Speer asking if and how the Army will implement the recommendations.
McCaskill is a leading voice in the Senate for saving taxpayer dollars through contracting reform and oversight. McCaskill waged a successful six-year effort to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse in wartime contracting. She has repeatedly raised concerns about contractor Jorge Scientific/Imperatis following the company’s misconduct in Afghanistan; federal agencies ignored those concerns and re-hired the firm, which then defaulted on a major IT contract. Last year, McCaskill called for answers on why the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Bureau of Prisons hired a contractor, Glocoms, despite its history of poor contract performance. McCaskill has also successfully expanded protections for whistleblowers—who ?help to identify waste, fraud, and abuse—to government contractors, subcontractors, and others who the federal government directly or indirectly hires through bipartisan bills that have been signed into law.
Read McCaskill’s letter to Speer HERE.
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