Many of these workers are serving and interacting with soldiers on a daily basis — providing their haircuts, cooking their dinners, etc. — and, as a result, friendships sometimes form, and soldiers (or, in some cases, American contractors for companies like KBR) stand up for these workers against their foreign subcontractor bosses.
Because of sloppy recordkeeping at the Pentagon and inconsistent reporting by contractors, no one knows the extent of foreign subcontractor activities, said a 2004 Government Accountability Office report.
Because of sloppy recordkeeping at the Pentagon and inconsistent reporting by contractors, no one knows the extent of foreign subcontractor activities, said a 2004 U.S. Government Accountability Office report.
The NLC recommends that companies from rich countries should persuade their foreign subcontractors to formulate and respect reasonable labour standards.
Suspicions abound that foreign subcontractors, working on British sites, bring in foreign workers with pay and qualifications that are below NAECI standards.
The Commission on Wartime Contracting recently warned of the dangers associated with "poorly conceived, poorly structured, poorly conducted, and poorly monitored subcontracting," particularly noting the military's "heavy reliance on foreign subcontractors who may not be accountable to any American governmental authority".
How can the US claim any legitimacy behaving like this? SARAH STILLMAN: What's interesting, Wanda, is that many of the alleged abuses taking place happen at the hands of foreign subcontractors.
To save money, defence ministries are making contractors use cheaper, off-the-shelf commercial components instead of specially designed military ones, and that means defence companies have more foreign subcontractors.Yet despite such attempts to contain costs, the price of new weapons seems to rise inexorably.
The work has been awarded to foreign subcontractors and their teams.Energy is one of the few sectors set for a construction boom in Britain, and is thus one arena where more of such grievances are likely to be fought out (the 2012 Olympics is another).
Reuters reported in August that the Defense Criminal Investigative Service had opened a criminal probe into the Huntsville, Alabama, Army aviation unit that oversees the Mi-17 program, and ties between the unit's former chief and two foreign subcontractors.
At the time, he ran a Baghdad warehouse for a company called Elite Home Group, which sheltered and fed hundreds of foreign K.B.R. subcontractors in conditions that were, he admitted, foul.
