The Department of Defense paid contractors $13 billion for operations in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2007, according to documents obtained by Taxpayers for Common Sense.
The $13 billion represents about 15 percent of the $95 billion Congress appropriated between 2003 and 2007 for Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). OEF, one of three operations launched after the 9/11 attacks, includes the war in Afghanistan as well as activities in countries such as the Phillippines.
The figures are provided in monthly “Supplemental and Cost of War Execution Reports” compiled by the Defense Accounting Finance Service, DOD’s financial clearinghouse. The contracts cover operations and maintenance (O&M) services including building maintenance, administrative equipment and food preparation. DOD has increasingly turned to the private sector to fulfill operations and maintenance functions: A 2007 Government Accountability Office report found that military O&M contracts grew 73 percent between 2000 and 2005.
Yet the $13 billion likely does not account for all O&M contracting since DFAS does not indicate how much funding for weapons maintenance, training or communications goes to contractors. O&M contracts also do not represent all wartime contracting. A report released by the Congressional Budget Office last week estimated total funding to contractors in Operation Iraqi Freedom at $85 billion, or 20 percent of the total amount appropriated. But that estimate does not include contracts for weapons, research and development or classified intelligence programs.
DFAS began issuing the reports in 2003 at the request of Congress in order to track the montly rate of money “obligated” for the War on Terror, meaning money that is committed through payments, contracts or orders. DOD reorganized the DFAS reports in 2007 following complaints from Congress that the reports were not transparent enough. TCS obtained the reports through the Freedom of Information Act.
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