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Safeguard rebuilding funds

Federal prosecutors in California have accused a Marine logistics officer and his wife of concocting an elaborate scheme to steal $1.75 million intended to help rebuild Iraq and develop its nascent police force.

And while the Marine and his wife have not yet appeared in court to answer the charges against them, their case highlights the ongoing, inexcusable lack of effective controls over the gargantuan sums of cash U.S. military members and contractors are entrusted with for conducting business in the war zones. Dozens of war-zone contracting fraud cases, many involving military members, triggered special investigations by a “blue ribbon” Pentagon panel, the Army and others, yet the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies overseeing reconstruction programs clearly are no closer to effectively clamping down on pilfering.

Capt. Eric Schmidt spent much of 2008 working as a Marine contracting officer in Iraq where, prosecutors say, he steered deal after deal to Iraqi vendors complicit in the Marine’s scheme to line his own pockets. He and his wife allegedly wired and smuggled cash to their own accounts and spent lavishly on extravagant homes and luxury cars. Two Army officers — Capts. Michael D. Nguyen and David Silviano Gilliam — were nailed for pulling similar stunts downrange and pleaded guilty to criminal charges last year.

The federal government has funneled billions of dollars to troops in the combat zones in an effort to put these shattered countries back together. That money is given to them by taxpayers who are told it will be spent on projects vital to our collective interests — not for a greedy officer’s vacation home. The majority of the troops tasked with contracting and cash-handling duties do so honorably, but you can’t help but wonder: For every service member and contractor caught after showy displays of newfound wealth, how many manage to quietly get away with it?

The safeguards just are not adequate and DoD needs to make them so, then hold those responsible for oversight accountable.