KBR, the largest contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, improperly billed the Pentagon and was paid about $103 million for armed security guards, a U.S. senator says. In a Nov. 6 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who chairs a contracting oversight panel, wrote that the Pentagon has recovered $42 million of the payments. McCaskill said she was concerned the Defense Department “is not moving quickly enough to recover the remaining $61 million” and asked Gates for a status report by Dec. 1.
KBR officials have not seen the McCaskill letter but “the assertion KBR has engaged in ‘improper’ billings is false,” said company spokeswoman Heather Browne in an e-mail.