Department of State
Scientific Integrity Policies Moving Forward, But Still Little Sunlight
Aug 11, 2011 by Gavin Baker
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced in a blog post today that nearly all the agencies participating in the development of scientific integrity policies had submitted draft policies to OSTP. The deadline for agencies to do so was last week. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are behind schedule but are expected to submit their policies soon.
read in fullContractors Do Bad Things, Uncle Sam Has to Sit on His Hands
Dec 21, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*
A batch of documents recently obtained by the Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request exposes "previously undisclosed offenses committed by more than 200 contract employees in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2004 and 2008." Many of these offenses were quite egregious, and yet it was often only the employee disciplined, while the government let the offending company off the hook. A recent New York Times article reveals why: many of these companies are too big to ban.
read in fullGovernment Launches New Tool to Improve Transparency of Foreign Aid Spending
Dec 16, 2010 by Gavin Baker
Today, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Foreign Assistance Dashboard, a new tool to shed light on U.S. foreign aid spending.
read in fullU.S. Scores Poorly on Transparency of Foreign Aid Spending
Oct 7, 2010 by Gavin Baker
A new comparative study of development aid finds the U.S. among the least transparent of the world's donors.
read in fullBad Idea: Stand up a Private Army in Iraq to Take the Place of Departing U.S. Forces
Aug 23, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*
The pullout of the final U.S. combat brigade from Iraq last week was the penultimate step in the military's withdrawal from the country at the end of 2011. At that time, the State Department, utilizing a large number of private security contractors (PSC), will take responsibility for performing many of the tasks the Department of Defense (DOD) has been carrying out. Problem is, State isn't very good at overseeing contractors.
read in fullYou Can't Say Congress Isn't Listening to the American People...
May 5, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*
When an Economist/YouGov poll came out early last month, several economics and political bloggers re-highlighted the fact that Americans, by a large majority, favor lower government spending over increased taxes in order to balance the budget, but that when asked to make hard choices refuse to cut any specific programs except for low-hanging fruit like foreign aid. According to a recent Congressional Quarterly article (subscription), it seems that members of Congress may answer the average American's wish during this year's budget process.
read in fullLegislators Reintroduce Bill to End Government's Use of Security Contractors
Feb 24, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*
Yesterday morning, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) held a press conference to announce the reintroduction of legislation to phase out the government's use of private security contractors in war zones. The Stop Outsourcing Security Act, which Schakowsky and Sanders originally introduced in 2007, seeks to prevent contractors in war zones from performing "mission critical or emergency essential functions," including security, military and police training, interrogation, and intelligence.
read in fullIraq Reconstruction IG Nabs a Couple Bad Guys
Feb 3, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*
The office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) released its 24th quarterly report on Saturday. If you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on in Iraq recently, it's worth a read. Besides providing observations on what's happening in the country and detailing the sources and uses of reconstruction funds, the inspector general's report also describes their recent oversight activities and successes in rooting out corruption within government contracting overseas.
read in fullBlackwater/Xe, the Company You Can't Get Rid of
Dec 22, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*
Yesterday, Justin Elliot at Talking Points Memo published an interesting piece on the never-ending saga that is the government's relationship with the company formerly known as Blackwater. Despite the scandals, investigations and indictments that have recently plagued Xe – and the resultant loss of a license to operate in Iraq and the cancellation of several security contracts overseas – the company continues to perform work for the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Pentagon in Afghanistan and Iraq.
read in fullState Dept Continues to Fail at Contractor Oversight
Oct 26, 2009 by Gary Therkildsen*
The contracting boondoggle that is the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq came into full focus last week with the State Department's release of an Inspector General's audit of the compound. We already knew that construction of the fortress-like embassy, which is the largest on the planet and ten times bigger than any other US embassy, was riddled with the big WF&B (waste, fraud and abuse), but the sheer scale of corruption and ineptitude detailed in the report brings back into question the State Department's ability to oversee contractors.
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