Blackwater illegally paid millions in taxpayer money for years
According to RT.com today, from 2004 – 2010 Blackwater (a private security firm) was paid 103.7 million in taxpayer money through federal grants to send private armed guards to Iraq for “democracy building.” The Office of the Inspector General and the State Department in a June 2012 report found that the non-profit bipartisan organization International Republican Institute, chaired by Senator John McCain, gave Blackwater millions without ever seeking outside bids from competitors. The Inspector General found that there were other qualified security companies that could have submitted competitive bids.
The investigation further found that four of the eight grants exceeded their allocated budgets by over 4.5 million. Additionally, security costs were budgeted at nearly 50 million but actually cost over 64 million. Other findings were that Blackwater was unable to produce documentation that related to some of the federal contracts. Also, the investigation found that Blackwater did not get approval for some spending allocations.
Subsequently, the International Republican Institute agreed to institute controls to manage security costs.
Note that Blackwater has changed their name and now goes by Academi.
