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Congressman pushes for disclosure bill
May 28, 05:45 PM
New Britain Herald
By SCOTT WHIPPLE, Herald staff
Discovering the government often has no idea how much profit is being skimmed off government contracts, U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, co-sponsored legislation this month to force disclosure of such information to the public.
“As the president requests billions more with no strings attached for his war in Iraq, it’s imperative that top-level salaries of contractors we hired for this war, who are making millions off of it, profiting from federal contracts funded by taxpayer dollars, are public,” Murphy said.
His legislation — the Government Funding Transparency Act of 2008, or H.R. 3928 — would compel solid financial numbers from firms such as Blackwater USA, a security contractor in Iraq that has drawn fire for controversial actions overseas and lack of accountability.
Its chief executive, Erik Prince, testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, refused to answer Murphy’s questions regarding how much profit Blackwater makes from government contracts.
Murphy’s law would force Blackwater and similar firms — those making more than 80 percent of their revenue from taxpayer dollars and with contracts worth more than $25 million in any fiscal year — to disclose executive compensation, like any publicly traded company.
Murphy’s bill, first approved by the House on April 23, came up again this month because it was relevant to a package that House leadership wanted to include in the debate over the president’s latest request for funding for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Murphy’s bill was included in a package of amendments, approved and sent to the Senate for a second time.
The amendments, each voted on separately, were to fund the Iraq war, place a timeline on U.S. involvement there and deal with domestic needs such as expanding the G.I. Bill and extending unemployment benefits during economic uncertainty. Murphy’s bill was included in the third amendment.
Financial disclosures for Blackwater and similar companies would have to be posted on an Office of Management and Budget-operated Web site — usaspending.gov — authorized as part of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act adopted in 2006.
According to the site, the federal government has granted an increasing number of contracts without bidding or competition.
Since 2001, Blackwater has experienced a meteoric rise in profits from hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts, often won through no-bid processes. Blackwater contracts increased to $593 million in 2006 from $736,906 in 2001.
