Army officials at Fort Knox, Ky., improperly awarded 108 green energy jobs valued at more than $270 million and are unable to document claimed savings for the projects.
That happened, according to the Department of Defense inspector general, because Fort Knox administrators failed to “establish adequate internal controls over the award and administration” of the work and failed to “determine whether the government received fair and reasonable prices.”
“The lack of adequate internal controls increases the risk of fraud, waste, and abuse,” the IG said.
Defense agencies are under the same presidential and legislative mandates to reduce energy use as civilian agencies.
The problems are Fort Knox were found in the Army’s use of two specialized contract types, both of which are designed to enable government officials to work with utility companies in finding energy savings as quickly as possible.
The Utility Energy Services Contracts and Energy Savings Performance Contracts allow payment either with appropriated funds from Congress or via energy savings at the military facilities.
The IG said it was impossible to determine whether there were sufficient energy savings as a result of the approved projects to pay for them.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
