Backlog of Fraud Cases at Justice Grows

An under-funded and over-worked Justice Department division now has a backlog of more than 900 fraud cases brought by whistle-blowers that could take 10 years to clear up. The victim is the US taxpayer, and the alleged perpetrators are contractors involved in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq-Nam, health-care, and privatized government functions. Each year 300-400 civil cases are filed, and Justice rejects about 75% as having little merit. That still leaves 100 cases or so a year.

Carrie Johnson of the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, “At issue in most of the cases is whether companies knowingly sold defective products or overcharged federal agencies for items sold at home or offered to US troops overseas. Under the Civil War-era False Claims Act, workers who file lawsuits alleging such schemes cannot discuss them or even disclose their existence until Justice decides whether to step in.” That can routinely take 14 months or even longer, and that’s a long time to be twisting in the wind.

Ms. Johnson also wrote, “By its own account, the 75-lawyer unit in Washington that reviews the sensitive lawsuits is overloaded and understaffed. Only about 100 cases a year are investigated by the team, which works out of the commercial litigation branch of Justice's civil division. Critics argue that the delays are at least partly the result of foot-dragging by Justice and the federal agencies whose position it represents, especially in the touchy area of suppliers that may have overbilled the government for equipment, food and other items used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Or as they say in the military, “it’s nice to know the equipment on which your life depends was made by the lowest bidder.”

Finally, Ms. Johnson stated, “Justice lawyers have rejected about 19 cases involving contractor fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, registering five settlements that resulted in $16 million, officials said. Government officials said this week that they are considering whether to dive into 32 more whistle-blower cases involving Iraq or the Middle East.” How times have changed.

Senator (later President) Harry Truman headed the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program in 1941. “The Truman Committee” as it was known, spent much of World War II investigating similar charges. Senator Truman personally drove thousands of miles to visit site upon site documenting fraud and waste. In doing so, he and his colleagues saved taxpayers $15 billion – and those were 1940s dollars. Using the Consumer Price Index to adjust for inflation, that’s almost $191 billion 2008 dollars, enough to fund the wars in Asia for a couple of years.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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