Failure to Fix Base Hazards Worried Pentagon Official

[Woodmonkey]

WASHINGTON — A Pentagon safety expert told senior Defense Department officials earlier this year that their failure to heed warnings to fix widespread electrical hazards on American bases in Iraq could leave the Pentagon liable for multiple electrocutions of American soldiers, according to internal e-mail correspondence released Friday.

In a May 5, 2008, e-mail message, a safety official at the Defense Contract Management Agency, the Pentagon organization in charge of supervising defense contractors in Iraq, noted that the agency had failed to act after its own comprehensive safety survey in February 2007 found widespread electrical problems at American bases that had led to a series of deaths, injuries and fires.

But top D.C.M.A. officials responded to the assertion by saying that they had never heard of the safety survey, indicating that they had no knowledge of the longstanding electrical problems.

In January 2008, 11 months after the comprehensive safety review, Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, a Green Beret, was electrocuted while taking a shower at his base in Baghdad, apparently because of poorly grounded electrical work in the building. A subsequent Pentagon review of its records found that at least 13 American personnel had been electrocuted in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

The failure by Pentagon contracting officials to act on the 2007 safety report, in the wake of Sergeant Maseth’s death, raised troubling questions, wrote James O’Kane, the contract safety specialist with the D.C.M.A, in his May 2008 e-mail message to his superiors.

Referring to the 2007 safety survey and their own failure to act upon it, Mr. O’Kane wrote, “I am concerned that electrical issues were identified; lack of action with regard to any correction action, or increased surveillance, results in direct liability issues for our agency as well as individuals who were briefed regarding this finding.”

The message was sent to top D.C.M.A. officials just as Congress was beginning to ask questions about electrical problems in Iraq following Sergeant Maseth’s death. As a result, Mr. O’Kane’s correspondence about the 2007 safety survey quickly went up the chain of command within D.C.M.A. But in response, one D.C.M.A. official asked in another e-mail message, “What report?”

The Pentagon e-mail traffic was released Friday by Representative Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. Mr. Waxman said he sent the letter in response to an article in The New York Times on Friday disclosing that electrical problems on American bases in Iraq were far more widespread than previously believed.

Internal Pentagon documents obtained by The Times revealed that shoddy electrical work by outside contractors had caused more dangerous conditions for American troops than was publicly acknowledged by the Pentagon. Hundreds of electrical fires have occurred on American bases, while many more soldiers have been killed or injured by fires or shocks than was known, the internal documents showed.

KBR, the Houston-based company that is the Pentagon’s largest contractor in Iraq, is responsible for most basic services provided to American troops there, including building maintenance.

In his letter to Mr. Gates, Mr. Waxman, Democrat of California, said that “it appears that there are significant deficiencies in electrical systems throughout Iraq, that these deficiencies present an ongoing threat to our troops, and that despite hundreds of electrical fires, the Department and KBR have done little to address the widespread safety risk.”

Separately, five Democratic senators, including Senator Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota and Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, sent a letter to Mr. Gates on Friday calling for the Pentagon to order an independent inspection “by someone both well-qualified and objective” of electrical work at bases in Iraq. Senator Dorgan also called on Mr. Gates to suspend KBR’s contract for electrical work at American bases in Iraq.

In response to the Congressional action on Friday, KBR reiterated its prior response to article in The Times, stating in part that the company had “found no evidence of a link between the work the military tasked KBR to perform and the reported deaths that have resulted from electrocution.” A Pentagon spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The source

[Bluehawk]

Originally Posted by Woodmonkey

...Referring to the 2007 safety survey and their own failure to act upon it, Mr. O’Kane wrote, “I am concerned that electrical issues were identified; lack of action with regard to any correction action, or increased surveillance, results in direct liability issues for our agency as well as individuals who were briefed regarding this finding.”

The source

Wonder if Mr. O'Kane is more concerned about liability than injury and damage...

[Woodmonkey]

Sure sounds like it.