Defense Base Act Class Action
Statement concerning filing of class action for fraud and bad faith against KBR, DynCorp, Blackwater, G4S/Wackenhut/Ronco Consulting, CNA Insurance, AIG Insurance and others who conspired to deny benefits to severely injured contractors and to harm them further
Scott Bloch files complaint for $2 billion against major government contractors like
KBR, Blackwater.XE, DynCorp, G4S/Wackenhut/Ronco Consulting and the global insurance carriers AIG, CNA, ACE and Zurich, on behalf of thousands of former employees, for unlawful, fraudulent and bad-faith mistreatment of injured employees and their families
WASHINGTON, DC (September 26, 2011) –
Since 2003, top government contractors like Blackwater, KBR, DynCorp, CSA/AECOM and ITT have been perpetrating a fraud on their employees and on the American public.
The silent warriors who work for these companies, many of them decorated former military service members, have been injured, mistreated and abandoned by the contracting companies and their insurance carriers who have been paid hundreds of millions of dollars in premiums.
“It is a grave injustice,” Bloch said, “to those who rode alongside American soldiers, including Iraqi and Afghani Nationals, to be case aside without the benefits of the law. We are supposedly trying to bring them the rule of law. We are supposedly trying to encourage them in democratic institutions.
We are the ones asking them to believe in justice and individual rights.
This is a travesty to all Americans and those around the world who look to America for an example of humanitarian aid and proper treatment of workers.”
This is a lawsuit for damages in the amount of $2 billion to remedy the injuries and destruction caused to the lives, finances and mental and physical well being of thousands of American families and others whose loved ones were injured while serving America under contracts with the United States.
It seeks an additional unspecified amount to punish the companies who made massive profits while causing this harm to people unlawfully and maliciously and working a fraud on the American public who paid them.
“This abusive and illegal scheme by the defendants has been allowed to go on for too long.
We are talking about loss of life, suicide, loss of homes, marriages, families split up, “ Bloch said, “and the culprits are the large government contractors who should have treated their employees better, and the mega-insurance companies who were paid a hefty sum to make sure the employees were taken care of with uninterrupted benefits in the event of injuries in these war zones.”
This complaint is filed due to actions and omissions of defendants, in conspiracy with others, and individually, to defeat the right of American citizens and foreign nationals to receive their lawful benefits and compensation under the Defense Base Act (“DBA”), as it adopts the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (“LHWCA”).
The lawsuit explains that those sued engaged under the RICO statute in an enterprise of fraudulent and or criminal acts to further their scheme to defeat the rights of individuals who have been injured or suffered occupational diseases, and death, while on foreign soil in support of defense activities under the DBA.
These acts were perpetrated repeatedly through bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, using telephones, faxes, and United States mail .
“These are heroes, decorated by America’s Armed Services,” said Bloch.
“Some of the foreign contractors were decorated special forces soldiers from their countries who assisted the United States in combating threats. The sheer disregard for human dignity and law is reprehensible and deserves punishment.
These families and many others who have been harmed need treatment, need compensation, need redress of the wrongs that have been perpetrated by these huge companies and insurance carriers for the last 10 years.
They have earned $100 billion per year on the backs of these people, with the blood of these plaintiffs and those whom they represent.”
The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and covers individuals from all over the United States, South Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and other counties.
Contact Scott J. Bloch, PA:
Scott Bloch, 202-496-1290
scott@scottblochlaw.com
Statement Concerning Filing of Amended Class Action Tax Misclassification Against Xe Services (formerly Blackwater) on Behalf of Personal Security Specialists for Loss of Benefits and Withholding, Expenses, Penalties, and Treble Damages
Washington DC September 21, 2011
Scott Bloch files Amended Complaint against Blackwater on behalf of thousands of former employees for unlawful, fraudulent and unconscionable treatment of employees in fraudulent misclassification as independent contractors
Since 2007, Blackwater Industries, which has changed its name to Xe Services, has employed over 10,000 personal security specialists to perform operations in Iraq and Afghanistan under lucrative contracts with departments of the United States Government including the State Department and CIA. While employing these individuals, many of whom are decorated veterans of the armed services including Special Forces, Army Rangers, Navy Seals, Blackwater sought to avoid millions of dollars in taxes, withholding, and payments of benefits to these employees by classifying them improperly as independent contractors.
Yesterday, Scott Bloch filed an amended complaint in the class action lawsuit on behalf of four former security specialists, who were injured while working for Blackwater, in order to recover their payment of social security, unemployment insurance, and unpaid benefits and state and local withholding and unemployment insurance, and other unspecified damages. The action is brought on their own behalf and thousands of others who have worked for Blackwater and its newly named Xe Services. The action seeks $240,000,000 in damages for lost benefits, overtime, treble damages and punitive damages, as well as additional amounts as proved for the class of specialists.
The suit also states that one of the representative plaintiffs already had a determination from the IRS that Blackwater misclassified him as an independent contractor. “The IRS already determined in the case of one of my clients that he should have been classified as an employee,“ said Bloch. “Now thousands of people will have to file amended returns. Thousands of people will likely be entitled to benefits they were denied due to the misclassification, including payment of their employer share of pension, health and disability insurance premiums, and other plans that Blackwater filed with the government for its employees, promising it would not discriminate against those employees as they did here.”
“Blackwater made hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers and hired thousands of former veterans of military service and police officers. They also had in their ranks Federal Agents, such as current employees of the FBI on leave of absence. They were hired as security specialists in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Bloch. “It is a grave injustice to them who were mistreated and left without any health insurance or other benefits for their families, and left to fend for themselves in paying into Social Security and Medicare. They laid down their lives to protect dignitaries and carry out duties in support of wars for America, and they deserve better than this. Many of these same men risked their lives to protect everyone from the President of the United States to U.S. Senators, Congressman, U.S. Diplomats, to Foreign Presidential & Diplomatic Figures in one of the most dangerous places on the planet.”
One of the Plaintiffs guarded such dignitaries as the just assassinated Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani as well as current Secretary of State and then Senator Hillary Clinton.
“Blackwater acted illegally and unconscionably toward these brave individuals,” said Bloch. ”Through their fraud as pointed out in the Amended Complaint, they avoided overtime for security workers who worked sometimes 12-16 hours a day 6 days a week. They were forced to sign agreements they never read and were not given time to read and not given copies, which took away valuable rights and were unlawful in their terms.”
Read full PRESS RELEASE Amended Complaint against Xe Blackwater here.
Contact Scott J. Bloch, PA:
Scott Bloch, 202-496-1290
Ronco Consulting sued for negligence by United Nations Mine Action Employee
Careful who you follow….
A United Nations Mine Action Employee has filed a lawsuit against Ronco Consulting Corporation for negligence after stepping on a landmine resulting in an immediate below the knee amputation in an area previously cleared by and certified clear of landmines by Ronco Consulting.
The United Nations board of inquiry found that Ronco failed to find the mine that injured Mr Fartham as well as three other mines.
The complaint states that Ronco Consulting, acting through it’s agents and/or employee’s, breached it’s professional duty of care to Fantham and did not exercise the reasonable care and skill expected of professional mine clearance companies.
G4S Joins the UN Global Compact for Responsible Business
Crawley, West Sussex, United Kingdom, 02/23/2011 – G4S has signed up to the United Nations Global Compact, an international standard which promotes socially responsible business behaviour in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.
“The principles set out in the Compact are already pretty well embedded in our existing policies, so we thought the time was right to make a public commitment to this excellent initiative, ” said G4S plc CEO Nick Buckles. “Doing so will give us extra impetus to ensure respect for human rights, the environment and ethical behaviour are part of everything we do worldwide.”
As part of our commitment to the Global Compact, G4S (g4s.com) undertakes to make an annual Communication on Progress in the areas set out in the Compact. This obligation will be covered by our Corporate Social Responsibility Report, which we have published since 2009.
More information on the Compact is available at unglobalcompact.org/.
US oversight of war-zone contractors labeled weak
by Richard Lardner Associated Press at SF Chronicle
President Barack Obama pledged nearly two years ago to fix the broken system of awarding and managing federal contracts. But a new report paints a grim picture of the government’s reliance on the private sector for support in war zones and urges a series of reforms to prevent more U.S. tax dollars from being wasted.
Commission on Wartime Contracting
The Commission on Wartime Contracting concluded that the use of hired hands has become a “default option,” pointing to the estimated $177 billion spent since 2001 on contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq, according
to a draft of the report expected to be released Thursday. Yet vigorous oversight and management of contractors by the Pentagon, State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development is too often “an administrative after-thought,” the report said.
The bipartisan commission is urging Congress to provide the agencies with more people and authority to control this industrial army, which at times has nearly equaled the size of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Unless Congress provides resources to oversee and evaluate contractor performance, waste will continue and national objectives will suffer,” according to the draft report, obtained by The Associated Press. The investment “will be amply repaid in reduced waste and increased effectiveness” of war-zone contracting, it said.
Wackenhut has new HQ, new ID
JUPITER — The nation’s second-largest security firm is dropping the Wackenhut name, a brand that for decades was synonymous with watchmen in tan uniforms.
After two mergers and the construction of a new corporate home in Jupiter, the former Wackenhut now is known as G4S, the name of its British parent.
Though the company’s North American headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens displayed the logos of both Wackenhut and G4S, its new office in Jupiter is labeled with only the G4S name.
The Wackenhut brand also is coming off the badges worn by the company’s 50,000 guards.
“We see it as retiring a wonderful legacy,” said Drew Levine, president of G4S Secure Solutions-North America.
The renamed company still is in the business of supplying security guards in tan uniforms, but Levine has shifted his focus to selling “more than a gun and a guard.”
G4S is touting technology and surveillance systems in addition to guards. Traditionally, companies that need security services get their guards from one company and their surveillance systems from another firm. G4S is part of an industrywide effort to sell one-stop shopping.
Rufford “Hobby Hobson” EOD Contractor Obituary
Farewell Good Friend
Rufford “Hobby Hobson”
Visitation will be in the J.W. Call Funeral Home Chapel at 12 noon on Saturday.
Funeral services will be 1:00 p.m. Saturday, January 29, 2011 in the J.W. Call Funeral Home Chapel.
Burial will follow in the Johnson Memorial Park at Pikeville, Ky.
Military services will be conducted at the gravesite by the Wright Patterson Airforce.
Rufford Butler “Hobby” Hobson, age 79, of Hickory Creek, Texas, passed away, December 19, 2010 in Hickory Creek, Texas.
He was born in Floyd County, Kentucky on October 9, 1931 the son of the late Edgar and Hazel Nunnery Hobson.
Along with his parents, he was preceded in death by one brother, William Edgar (Billy) Hobson.
He served in the US Army and then the US Air Force where he retired a CMsgt.
He continued to serve his country in Bomb Disposal until his death.
He served in Korea and Vietnam. He loved his country.
Among his many achievements in the Air Force were, Bronze Star, Air Force Conduct Medal with Six Oakleaf Clusters, Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, NCO Professional Military Education Ribbon, Army Good Conduct Medal with Three Knots, Korean Service Medal with One Star, Air Forc Longevity Service Ribbon with Six Oakleaf Clusters, National Defense Service Medal with One Star, Vietnam Service Medal with Four Bronze Stars, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palms, Republic of Vietnam Compaign Medal, United Nations Service Medal, Air Force Presidential Unit Citation, Meritorious Unit Citation, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, Air Force Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with One Oakleaf Cluster, Vietnam Honor Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Master EOD Badge, Master Missile Badge.
He is survived by three daughters, Rhonda Coleman (Ronald) of Tampa, FL, Deborah Bass (Eugene) of Seffner, FL and Belinda Torres (Andres) of Seffner, FL.
Two sisters, Josephine Hall of Pikeville, KY and Gaye Hall of Banner, KY.
Seven Grandchildren, Mark Coleman, Jerry O’Neill, Dale O’Neill, Jennifer Tellez, Gene Bass, Ariel Torres and Yesenia Tores.
Ten Great-Grandchildren, Anthony Coelman, Drew O’Neill, Andrew Coleman, Dustin Coleman, Hayley Farr, Katelyn Farr, Gabriel Tellez, Kaylee O’Neill, Anneliese Tellez and Elaine Torres.
Serving as Pallbearers will, Eugene Bass, Andres Torres, Jerry O’Neill, Dale O’Neill, Gene Bass and Drew O’Neill.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be made to the D.A.V. Chapter of Johns Creek, 658 Rock Road, Pikeville, Ky. 41501.
Rufford “Hobby” Hobson, EOD Contractor, remains likely found
Please see Hobby’s Obituary here
Hobby’s remains were positively identified and the investigation is ongoing.
Hobby Hobson went missing under suspicious circumstances shortly after his employment was terminated after many loyal and productive years by Ronco Consulting. More details soon.
Men Find Bones in Hickory Creek
Debbie Bass was cleaning out a closet Monday morning when she came across an old answering machine. She plugged it in and heard the voice of her father, Rufford Hobson, leaving a cheerful message for her in 2006.
It brought back the love she felt for him and the sadness she felt because he has been missing since April 2007.
“Since my mom died in 2008, I’ve been begging and praying that she would send me a sign of him,” Bass said Monday from her home in Florida. “Not two minutes after I heard his voice on that telephone message, I got the phone call: They think they found his bones.”
Hobson was last seen walking away from a woman’s house in Hickory Creek where he had been living. The woman waited three weeks to report him missing, and police did not consider him a missing person even then. Bass said detectives told her that he had the right to leave without telling anyone and there was no sign that anything had happened to him.
She contacted the Denton County Sheriff’s Office, and her 75-year-old father was listed as a missing person and an investigation begun. Hickory Creek police eventually began investigating but soon closed the case.
Hickory Creek police Sgt. Bobby Starnes confirmed Monday that two men found some bones at about 5 p.m. Sunday in a heavily wooded area off Point Vista Road in Hickory Creek Park. Starnes said that out of respect for the family, he would not discuss whether the bones might be Hobson’s or whether any other evidence was found with the bones. He would not discuss the distance between the house where the 45-year-old woman last saw Hobson and the place where the bones were found.
“We don’t want to make any assumptions, but we’re looking into it,” Starnes said.
Troy Taylor, chief investigator for the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Denton office, said Monday that his office is investigating the death as a homicide until it determines that it is not. He said the bones were in tattered clothing that matches the description of clothing Hobson wore the last time he was seen.
Taylor said one of the leg bones contains a metal pin, which matches information about Hobson. The skull was missing, he said, but a denture plate was found nearby.
“We already have DNA from his daughter, so we hope to be able to get a match and positive identification in five to seven business days,” Taylor said.
Chris Meegan, 26, and a friend were hiking in the park Sunday when they saw the bones. His mother lives nearby, Meegan said, and he has hiked in the park often.
“My friend picked up a bone and said he found a cow leg,” Meegan said. “I said, ‘Dude, that is not a cow leg.’ And he said, ‘yes it is.’ I said, ‘Cows don’t have pins in their legs.’ He was wearing dark pants and boots, there was a backpack and a camo coat or jacket over him. He had a single-shot shotgun with him.”
Meegan said they called 911 and waited for police to arrive. Meanwhile, they called a friend who began to research missing persons websites and found Hobson on a national missing persons list.
They read newspaper stories about Bass’ frustration with Hickory Creek officers’ refusal to investigate the case because they saw no indication that anything was wrong.
“We looked it up on the Internet, and it isn’t even 200 yards from that house,” Meegan said. “It’s got to be him. I hope this gives her some kind of closure.”
Hobson was a career military man who specialized in bomb disposal, his daughter said.
He traveled extensively, and they communicated mostly by e-mail. He had not been getting much work because of his age, Bass said, and he and the woman he was living with were having some difficulties. He had only one kidney and told her the other one was giving him trouble. She thought he was depressed.
He called her April 20, asking for her address, she said. She asked him what he was doing, and he said he was working on a project. The woman he was living with called Bass about an hour later.
“She said she saw him walking away from the house with a backpack an hour earlier and she wanted to know had I heard from him,” Bass said. “I hadn’t, and no one else has since then.”
The woman waited about three weeks, thinking Hobson would come back, before reporting him missing to Hickory Creek police. Officers told her that he did not qualify to be put into the national law enforcement database of missing persons.
A few days after he disappeared, a package arrived in the mail, Bass said. It contained all her father’s military medals and some family pictures. His military pension and a disability check continued to be automatically deposited to his account. The woman he was living with had a debit card and was withdrawing money, Bass said.
Bass could not get the checks stopped because her father was not legally dead, and she could not get him declared legally dead because police would not declare him missing. It was a frustrating time, she said.
Bass said she is confident that the bones are her father’s and she is grateful to everyone who helped.
“This will close it,” she said. “I’ve prayed and prayed. I’m sad, but I’m happy at the same time.”
Contractors’ bad behavior _ public drunkenness, teen hired to dance_ mean headaches for US
Richard Lardner Associated Press at the LA Times
WASHINGTON (AP) — At two in the morning on Sept. 9, 2005, five DynCorp International security guards assigned to Afghan President Hamid Karzai‘s protective detail returned to their compound drunk, with a prostitute in tow. Less than a week later, three of these same guards got drunk again, this time in the VIP lounge of the Kabul airport while awaiting a flight to Thailand.
“They had been intoxicated, loud and obnoxious,” according to an internal company report of the incident, which noted that Afghanistan’s deputy director for elections and a foreign diplomat were also in the lounge. “Complaints were made regarding the situation.” DynCorp fired the three guards.
Such episodes represent the headaches that U.S. contractors can cause in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. They are indispensable to the State Department‘s mission overseas, handling security, transportation, construction, food service and more. But when hired hands behave badly — or break the law — they cast a cloud over the American presence.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act describe previously undisclosed offenses committed by more than 200 contract employees in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries between 2004 and 2008. They were working under a broad State Department security services contract shared by DynCorp of Falls Church, Va., Triple Canopy of Reston, Va., and the company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide — Xe Services of Moyock, N.C.
Most of the infractions, which include excessive drinking, drug use, sexual misconduct, and mishandling weapons, were violations of corporate and U.S. policies that probably went unnoticed by ordinary Afghans and Iraqis. But other offenses played out in public, undermining U.S. efforts in both countries and raising questions about how carefully job candidates are screened.
Despite complaints from foreign capitals about reckless behavior and heavy-handed tactics, U.S. contractors are more important than ever.
In Iraq, the departure of U.S. combat forces has left a security and logistics support vacuum to be filled by the private sector. In testimony to the independent Wartime Contracting Commission in June, a State Department official said as many as 7,000 security contractors — more than double the current number — will be needed to guard the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and other offices across Iraq.
Karzai had to back away from the Friday deadline he had set to ban security contractors after Western diplomats said the move threatened the completion of billions of dollars worth of critical reconstruction projects that need to be protected from insurgent attacks.
Review finds that bomb-sniffing dogs in Afghanistan and Iraq may not be up to snuff
The State Department’s inspector general said Friday that bomb-sniffing dogs in Afghanistan and Iraq aren’t being tested properly and may not be able to effectively detect explosives.
The inspector general’s review found that the companies hired to supply and train the animals weren’t testing them for all of the scents of the most commonly encountered explosives, increasing the chance of a dog missing a bomb in a vehicle or luggage. That puts U.S. diplomats at risk, the inspector general said.
The companies — U.S. Training Center in Moyock, N.C., a business unit of the company formerly known as Blackwater, and RONCO Consulting Corp. in Washington — also used expired or potentially contaminated materials for the scent tests, the inspector general’s report said.
Susan Pitcher, a spokeswoman for Wackenhut Services, RONCO’s parent company, called the inspector general’s review “inaccurate.” She said a canine expert engaged by the State Department to verify the detection capabilities of the dogs concluded that they complied with the required standards.
Pitcher, however, said that the company had not been provided the expert’s report, receiving instead what she described as “on-site briefings” about the results.
The inspector general’s office said it had not been given the results of the expert’s inspection when it released its report.
The U.S. Training Center did not respond to a request for comment on the inspector general’s report.
The inspector general’s review was limited to three canine programs handled by U.S. Training Center and RONCO. The report did not say how many dogs each contractor provides.
Overall, the State Department uses nearly 200 bomb-sniffing dogs. The report only offers a glimpse of the costs of these services, saying the State Department pays $24 million a year alone for canine services at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The report faults the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is responsible for managing the canine program, for weak oversight. Investigators found that the contractors, not the bureau, were running the program and policing themselves.
During visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the investigators did not meet any bureau personnel with expertise in bomb-sniffing dogs. “They depended upon the knowledge and expertise of the contractors to ensure all contractual requirements and other standards were met,” according to the report.
The contractors told the investigators “that no outside organization with expertise in explosive detection canines had ever reviewed their operations in Iraq or Afghanistan,” the report said.
In comments printed in the report, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security said it is taking steps to improve the canine program and plans to hire an independent expert who will ensure all the contract requirements are met properly.
New Report: US Taxpayers Are Wasting Millions On Contractors To Train Explosive Sniffing Dogs
The US State Department (DOS) spends millions on it’s explosives detection canine services program in Iraq and Afghanistan. The dogs are trained to sniff explosives to ensure safety of US as well as foreign personnel on the ground. The program is operated through contractors like the DC based RONCO Consulting Corporation, which further sub-contracts the work to others like the ArmorGroup of North America, Triple Canopy etc. According to a report recently published by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), this program is seriously mismanaged, as contractors are neither doing their job properly, nor are they supervised.
The OIG reviewed three specific explosives detection canine programs managed by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) in South Asia and the Middle East, and reached the following conclusions. Here’s an excerpt from the report:
- All of the Department’s explosives detection canine services are part of various security-related contracts in South Asia and the Middle East. These contracts include the embassy security force contracts in Baghdad and Kabul and task orders of the Worldwide Personal Protective Services contract in Baghdad, Tallil, and Erbil in Iraq and Kabul, Afghanistan. Canines in these programs regularly conduct searches and inspect vehicles, packages, and luggage.
- Given that the Department employs nearly 200 canines and handlers for these services, the expenditures for canine services can be considerable. For example, the Department pays over $24 million per year for canine services associated with the Baghdad Embassy Security Force.
- The ability of a canine to recognize explosive scents is the foundation for any explosives detection canine program, and canines should be able to recognize common explosives. Canines under Department contracts must comply with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Odor Recognition Proficiency Standard for Explosives Detection Canines. This standard includes testing for six mandatory scents of the most commonly encountered explosives.
- During its review of these three programs, OIG found systemic weaknesses in canine test procedures that call into question the ability of the canines to effectively detect explosives. The contractors do not test for all mandated scents and use old materials to train and test the canines, although fresh materials are required. Additionally, the improper method of storing these materials may be leading to cross-contamination (which violates the standards laid out by the Treasury, which specifically prohibits cross-contamination of scents of explosives, so as to ensure that the dogs are accurately trained).
- At the time of OIG’s field work, no independent expert had validated the detection abilities of the canines or determined whether the contractors comply with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Odor Recognition Proficiency Standard for Explosives Detection Canines since the award of the contracts.
- The Department of the Treasury’s standard requires that fresh explosives be used for each testing session and that testing be done annually. At none of the locations could contractors verify the age of the testing materials. One contractor reported using testing material obtained over three years ago from the previous security contractor. Other contractors indicated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Combined Explosives Exploitation Cell or the Department of Defense’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit provides the testing explosives, many of which are collected from unexploded improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan and are of indeterminate age.
- Canines undergo regular scent recognition testing under which they must be able to recognize six mandatory scents. In two programs, contractors did not possess all testing substances. In a third program, the contractor reported that it tested for all six scents, but could not verify to the OIG team that the materials used were actually the required testing substances. No contractor had reliable documentation to validate either the receipt or composition of testing materials. Contractors with all three programs reported that they either did not know how to ship in fresh testing materials or were incapable of doing so.
- Certain explosive testing materials must be stored separately as they tend to readily cross- contaminate with other explosives. However, the OIG team observed that in all three programs, contractors stored these particular materials with other explosives, which may result in contaminated testing materials. Contractors with all three programs stated at the time of OIG’s fieldwork they did not have the space to store materials separately.
- During field work in Iraq and Afghanistan, the OIG team did not encounter any DS personnel with expertise in explosive detection canines. Instead, according to DS staff members, they depended upon the knowledge and expertise of the contractors to ensure all contractual requirements and other standards were met. The contractors responsible for the canines reported to OIG that no outside organization with expertise in explosive detection canines had ever reviewed their operations in Iraq or Afghanistan
The OIG’s conclusion: “OIG’s examination of three explosive detection canine programs revealed systemic problems that directly affect the safety and security of U.S. Government personnel and installations. In the three programs OIG reviewed, the contractors, rather than DS, were responsible for implementing the program and ensuring that contractually required procedures were being followed. Contractors are not testing for all scents, are using possibly expired or contaminated materials to test canines, and are storing materials in a manner that may be leading to cross-contamination.”
The Center for Public Integrity has this to say about the RONCO Consulting Corporation, the contractor in charge of this mess: “On March 14, 2003, Ronco was awarded a contract by the U.S. Defense Department worth more than $419,000 to come up with a plan to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate the Iraqi armed forces, as well as national and regional militias. The State Department contracted with Ronco to perform two main functions in the landmine clearance activities in Iraq.
Ronco received a six-month contract from the USAID Office of Transition Initiatives’ Afghanistan Political Transition Grant Project. To fulfill this contract, Ronco established offices in Afghanistan to coordinate the disbursement of grants designed to rehabilitate Afghanistan’s social and economic infrastructure. According to USAID, Ronco is in charge of creating “a broad operational platform for the entire USAID effort in Afghanistan.” Toward the end of the initial six months, USAID extended the contract to one year for a total value of $5.65 million.
Ronco has also been involved in Afghanistan’s demining efforts. The company provides training and assistance to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance and the Mine Action Program Afghanistan. In January 2002, the State Department provided approximately $3.1 million to support the salaries and expense costs of 15 Ronco staff members stationed in Afghanistan to train Afghan mine clearance personnel, according to a State Department fact sheet.
Among Ronco’s full-time staff of 90 U.S. and 300 host country personnel, the company boasts on its Web site of employing many ex-government officials, including “a former USAID deputy assistant administrator, mission directors [and] senior military personnel.” Among the former USAID employees is Larry Crandall, who is currently Ronco’s vice president for International Programs. Crandall was mission director of USAID’s operations in Haiti. According to USAID’s presentation to Congress in 1997, Ronco was a contractor in Haiti while Crandall was mission director in that country.”
RONCO has been awarded even more contracts worth millions by the DOS beside the $3.1 million contract mentioned above. We are not only wasting millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money but this puts at risk those who depend on these explosive detecting services for their safety. The only ones benefiting from this mismanaged program are the contractors who are paid handsomely for their (lack of) services.
Report says Ronco and The US Training Center (Blackwater) bomb-sniffing dogs not up to snuff
Update by Richard Lardner Associated Press at CB Online
WASHINGTON (AP) – The State Department’s inspector general said Friday that bomb-sniffing dogs in Afghanistan and Iraq aren’t being tested properly and may not be able to effectively detect explosives.
The inspector general’s review found that the companies hired to supply and train the animals weren’t testing them for all of the scents of the most commonly encountered explosives, increasing the chance of a dog missing a bomb in a vehicle or luggage. That puts U.S. diplomats at risk, the inspector general said.
The companies — U.S. Training Center in Moyock, N.C., a business unit of the company formerly known as Blackwater, and RONCO Consulting Corp. in Washington — also used expired or potentially contaminated materials for the scent tests, the inspector general’s report said.
Representatives from RONCO, owned by Wackenhut Services, and the U.S. Training Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the inspector general’s report.
The inspector general’s review was limited to three canine programs handled by U.S. Training Center and RONCO. The report does not say how many dogs each contractor provides.
Overall, the State Department uses nearly 200 bomb-sniffing dogs. And the report only offers a glimpse of the costs of these services, saying the State department pays $24 million a year alone for canine services at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The report faults the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which is responsible for managing the canine program, for weak oversight. Investigators found that the contractors, not the bureau, were running the program and policing themselves.
During visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the investigators did not meet any bureau personnel with expertise in bomb-sniffing dogs. “They depended upon the knowledge and expertise of the contractors to ensure all contractual requirements and other standards were met,” according to the report.
And the contractors told the investigators “that no outside organization with expertise in explosive detection canines had ever reviewed their operations in Iraq or Afghanistan,” the report said.
In comments printed in the report, the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security said it is taking steps to improve the canine program and plans to hire an independent expert who will ensure all the contract requirements are met properly.
Richard Lardner Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The State Department’s inspector general says bomb-sniffing dogs used in Afghanistan and Iraq aren’t being tested properly and may not be able to effectively detect explosives.
In a report released Friday, the inspector general said its review found that the companies hired to supply and train the dogs weren’t testing them for all of the scents of the most commonly encountered explosives, increasing the chance of a dog missing a bomb in a vehicle or luggage. That puts U.S. troops at risk.
The companies also used expired or contaminated materials for the scent tests.
In comments printed in the report, the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security says it is taking steps to improve the canine program and plans to hire a contractor that will ensure all the contract requirements are met.
Federal Judge Denies Defendants ArmorGroup’s and Wackenhut’s Motions to Dismiss False Claims Act Whistleblower Lawsuit Involving Fraudulent Practices at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 27/ — Judge James Cacheris of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has denied Defendants ArmorGroup North America (“AGNA”), ArmorGroup International, Wackenhut Services, Inc., and Cornelius Medley’s motions to dismiss whistleblower James Gordon’s lawsuit brought under the False Claims Act.
On September 9, 2009, Mr. Gordon, former Director of Operations of AGNA, filed a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit under the False Claims Act in United States District Court for the District of Columbia, charging that ArmorGroup management retaliated against him for whistleblowing, internally and to the United States Department of State (“DoS”), about illegalities committed by ArmorGroup in the performance of AGNA’s contracts with the United States to provide security services at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan and at the U.S. Naval base in Bahrain.
The Complaint charges that during Mr. Gordon’s seven-month tenure as Director of Operations, he investigated, attempted to stop, and reported to DoS a myriad of serious violations committed by ArmorGroup, including:
- Severely understaffing the guard force necessary to protect the U.S. Embassy;
- Allowing AGNA managers and employees to frequent brothels notorious for housing trafficked women in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act;
- Endangering the safety of the guard force during transport to and from the Embassy by attempting to substitute company-owned subpar, refurbished vehicles from Iraq rather than purchasing armored escort vehicles as promised to DoS;
- Knowingly using funds to procure cheap counterfeit goods from a company in Lebanon owned by the wife of AGNA’s Logistics Manager; and
- Engaging in practices to maximize profit from the contract with reckless disregard for the safety and security of the guard force, the U.S. Embassy, and its personnel
In his Memorandum Opinion (August 27, 2010), Judge Cacheris noted that “Plaintiff alleges and Defendants offer no facts to dispute that Defendants … began to try to constructively discharge [Mr. Gordon] by ‘making [his] working conditions intolerable.'” Judge Cacheris further noted that “Plaintiff alleges, and Defendants have not offered any evidence refuting the fact, that [Defendant] Medley excluded Plaintiff from management meetings, shunned him, and relegated him to a position of persona non grata in the office” and that “Medley made clear to Plaintiff by his behavior, and to other staff members by his direct boasts, that his priority was to force Gordon to quit.” In denying Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment, Judge Cacheris concluded that “there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding the continued nature and duration of the allegedly illegal acts Plaintiff was requested and required to participate in.” The parties will now proceed into the discovery phase of the litigation.
According to Debra S. Katz, counsel for Mr. Gordon, “this is an important victory for conscientious employees, like Mr. Gordon, who blow the whistle on fraudulent practices by defense contractors and wind up then paying the ultimate price. The court’s decision today makes clear that such employees can bring federal claims under the False Claims Act to obtain redress.”
Debra S. Katz and Lisa Banks, attorneys at Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP, along with Janet Goldstein and Robert Vogel at Vogel, Slade & Goldstein, LLP, represent James Gordon.
Judge Cacheris’ opinion is available at http://www.kmblegal.com/2010/08/27/court-denies-summary-judgment-in-false-claims-act-whistleblower-retaliation-suit-by-kmb-client-james-gordon-against-afghanistan-defense-contractor-armorgroup/.
In Memory of Tim Eysselinck
April 23, 2004
We lost Tim Eysselinck
Husband, Father, Brother, Son
to PTSD six years ago today
May your family find peace someday soon
Overseas Civilian Contractors
CIVILIAN CONTRACTOR CASUALTIES
THE BEST KEPT SECRET OF THE WARS
At Least 59 Civilian Contractor Deaths Filed on in Second Quarter of 2012
At Least 49 Civilian Contractor Deaths Filed on in First Quarter of 2012
At Least 418 Civilian Contractor Deaths in 2011
Our Fallen Contractors Memorial
———————————-
A United Nations Mine Action Employee has filed a lawsuit against
for negligence after stepping on a landmine resulting in an immediate below the knee amputation in an area previously cleared by and certified clear of landmines by Ronco Consulting.
The United Nations board of inquiry found that Ronco failed to find the mine that injured Mr Fartham as well as three other mines.
The complaint states that Ronco Consulting, acting through it’s agents and/or employee’s, breached it’s professional duty of care to Fantham and did not exercise the reasonable care and skill expected of professional mine clearance companies.
Ronco Settles Negligence Lawsuit with UN Mine Action Employee
Ex Pat 2011 Tax Information UPDATED
We coordinate with the
Defense Base Act Compensation Blog
in order to provide more comprehensive coverage of issues effecting both injured contractors and those still in the field.
Visit our websites
American Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan
and
The Defense Base Act Workmans Compensation
Contact Us at civiliancontractor@yahoo.com
South African Justice for Injured Contractors
Please visit our Memorial to Civilian Contractor Casualties
-
Over
Recent Comments
Live Feed
Private
Overseas Civilian Contractors 