DynCorp International Inc., the largest contractor in Afghanistan, has refunded $40.8 million to the State Department for work in Iraq and Afghanistan, Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy said Monday. The department is seeking an additional $37.9 million in refunds from the Falls Church contractor, he said at a hearing of the Commission on Wartime Contracting.
The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, which is handling DynCorp’s Iraq police training contract, is conducting a “100 percent reconciliation” of all DynCorp Iraq invoices “going back prior to 2006,” Kennedy said.
“We have not been able to verify the numbers cited, at this point,” said DynCorp spokeswoman Ashley Burke in an email. DynCorp is a unit of New York-based Cerberus Capital Management LP.
“We respect and support the important role of oversight in government contracting, and are working closely with our customer and outside auditors to answer any questions that have been asked, provide additional documentation, if needed, and ensure that any issues are addressed to the satisfaction of the government,” she said.
The “reconciliation” is necessary because the INL Bureau “has no confidence in the accuracy of over $1 billion in charges” from DynCorp on early police training billings, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said in a Jan. 25, 2010, audit.
The audit disclosed “long-standing weaknesses” in State Department oversight of the company’s work. Bowen recommended the State Department conduct invoice reviews and seek reimbursements where appropriate.
The refunds “tell me they’ve accomplished the initial stages of implementing our recommendations to recover questioned costs,” he said Monday in a telephone interview.
“It’s crucial for State to take our recommendations seriously and follow up, particularly in regard to questioned costs,” he said. “We have audited the police training contract a number of times, and each audit has uncovered serious problems.”
He said that “this particular audit found enormous weaknesses in controls of what was in excess of $1 billion to support police training. We asked years ago that they provide a better accounting for the use of that money and where documentation was weak they go back to the contractor and recover funds.”
