Or not:
"U.S. Widens Net on Pricing of Food Supplies for G.I.’s" by ERIC SCHMITT and ANDREW MARTIN
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — Federal agents are investigating whether several large food companies charged the government excessively high prices for supplies to American troops in Iraq and Kuwait, administration officials said Wednesday.
[Nothing like supporting the troops and RIPPING OFF the American taxpayer!!!!!!]
Widening their previously disclosed inquiries into contract fraud and corruption in Kuwait and Iraq, investigators from the Justice and Defense Departments are examining deals that the Sara Lee Corporation, ConAgra Foods Inc. and other American companies made to supply the military, officials said.
[I WON'T BE PURCHASING THEIR PRODUCTS ANYMORE!!!!]
The inquiry centers on whether the companies overcharged the Army’s principal food supplier for the war zones, a Kuwait-based company called the Public Warehousing Company. Investigators are also looking into whether Public Warehousing improperly took payments from the food companies.
Public Warehousing, which supplies enormous amounts of fruits, vegetables and meats for more than 160,000 troops in combat zones, said in a statement that it had done nothing wrong and was fully cooperating.
But a Justice Department lawyer, Brian A. Mizoguchi, told a Federal Claims Court judge in Washington on June 12 that Public Warehousing’s business arrangements were the target of “a very large and active investigation into criminal fraud involving amounts in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“It relates directly to the contracts,” Mr. Mizoguchi said, “because it relates to the pricing and costs under those contracts.” Public Warehousing, which is now called Agility Logistics, receives more than $1 billion a year to feed troops in Iraq and Kuwait.
The investigation, which was reported Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, is also focusing on Army officials who picked the food companies that are Public Warehousing’s suppliers.
Procurement specialists said that once vendors like Public Warehousing received guidance from the Army Center of Excellence, Subsistence, at Fort Lee, Va., on what should be on the menu in chow halls, the vendors sought suppliers for that food. In some cases, the Army had designated specific companies to provide certain foods, like beef or chicken, which has drawn protests from rival companies.
For example, Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest meat company, has complained to the Pentagon that some food companies have hired former military procurement officials to use their contacts to help win lucrative government contracts.
[Remember K.P. duty? I want that army back!
GET RID OFF these SCUM-SUCKING CORPORATIONS!]
Timothy L. Hale, a spokesman at Fort Lee, said the Army agency had not been notified that it was under investigation. He referred questions to the Justice Department.
In a statement, Public Warehousing said its service had been “timely, reliable and cost-effective.” The company’s position is that what investigators are looking at as improper payments were actually discounts received for paying its suppliers ahead of schedule, a widely accepted practice in the food industry.
In court papers, Public Warehousing cited an e-mail message in October 2006 from a military contracting officer telling the company that the practice of discounts was appropriate.
Public Warehousing attributed its high prices partly to the costs associated with storing, handling and transporting supplies to multiple locations in a war zone. The company said more than 30 of its employees had been killed and 200 wounded in the war zones.
Several food companies said they were cooperating with investigators.
ConAgra Foods said it first received a request for information from the Pentagon in January.
“ConAgra Foods has been assured by the Department of Defense, which is leading the investigation of Public Warehousing Company, that its role in this investigation is limited to that of a witness,” the company said. ConAgra has provided “relevant records and testimony to the government investigators.” ConAgra officials denied that they had overcharged.
Officials for Sara Lee said they too had received a subpoena in January and had been assured that the company was not a target of the inquiry but a witness.
Kenneth G. Trantowski, a spokesman for Quantum Foods, said the company had received a subpoena during the summer from the federal prosecutors related to an investigation of “food industry practices as it relates to the military,” but said the company was not a target of the investigation.
Quantum Foods, based in the Chicago suburbs, has supplied meat, chicken and meals to the military since 2000, and has been shipping to Iraq since 2002.
[They were shipping supplies there MONTHS BEFORE the war?
Whadda STINK!!!!!!
Fucking DOWNING STREET MEMOS, man!!!!!]
Tyson and some other major companies say they are being excluded from the lucrative war-zone market. Tyson sent a letter to the Defense Logistics Agency on April 3 outlining the company’s concerns about the way some food purchases by the military “appear to favor certain companies employing former military food service personnel,” Gary Mickelson, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail message.
In the letter, Jenna R. Johnston, Tyson’s senior counsel and assistant secretary, requested a meeting to discuss what the company believed were unfair procurement practices. Specifically, she complained that some elements of the military were negotiating single-source, multiyear agreements with Tyson’s competitors worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
She argued that it was inappropriate for the military to specify brand name merchandise for “commodity raw chicken pieces, French fries, ground beef, liquid eggs,” since they are typically served with no brand visible."
[I got into the wrong line of work, folks!
Coulda made a boodle if I had gotten into food service!]
