Inspector General Says Iraq Contract Going Well

The latest report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction offers something relatively rare: Good news about burgeoning contracts and the government's oversight.

It seems that Aegis Defence Services, Limited, which has received about $624 million to provide security services to the Defense Department, has been found to perform "satisfactory to outstanding" on contract obligations.

Government overseers, meanwhile, have properly awarded and monitored the Aegis contracts, according to the report.

"SIGIR found well-supported contract awards to Aegis; appropriate government oversight of Aegis's bills, inventories, performance, and operations; and contract performance assessed as satisfactory to outstanding. For example:

- The two largest [Reconstruction Security Support Services] contracts were competitively awarded; the bridge contract between the two, although non-competitively awarded, was appropriately justified as a sole-source award.

- U.S. and U.K. agencies have provided appropriate oversight of Aegis's bills and have found that claims are well supported.

- U.S. agencies have monitored Aegis's controls of inventories and found them adequate to protect the U.S. government's interests.

- Aegis is adhering to its personnel screening and selection process, which should help to ensure that it hires individuals with the qualifications and personal qualities required by the contract.

- Aegis is adhering to its training program, which should help ensure that personnel working on the contract are properly trained.

- As part of DoD's new process to coordinate private security operations with military units, Aegis personnel assisted in tracking more than 55,000 private security operations since February 2008.

- Aegis has reported about 80 of the 380 serious incidents reported by all security contractors since February 2008. It is complying with requirements to coordinate its operations and report serious incidents involving attacks, injuries, and property damage. SIGIR plans to audit this incident-reporting process."

Everything's not perfect. Of course. Contract administration could improve. But overall, given the contracting debacles we've all heard about in Iraq, that's a pretty good report card.

On behalf of taxpayers, Government Inc. smiles.