The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog

Stop U.S. Involvement in Human Trafficking

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

Twenty million—that’s about how many men, women and children are victims of human trafficking around the world. But what you probably didn’t know is that your U.S. tax dollars are supporting human trafficking on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, where thousands of foreign nationals working for U.S. government contractors and subcontractors are victims of human traffickers.

We need you to urge your Members of Congress to include strong anti-trafficking enforcements in the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act that is sent to the President’s desk for signature so exisiting laws have enough teeth to make them effective. 

Help us end U.S.-supported human trafficking so not another cent of your tax dollars go to funding modern-day slavery.

Andre Francisco is an online producer with the Project On Government Oversight.

Follow @andrefrancisco

Executive Order Focuses on Prohibiting Human Trafficking

By SCOTT AMEY

Last week, President Obama signed an Executive Order (EO) strengthening the government’s zero-tolerance policy rules governing trafficking in persons (TIP). The EO lays out detailed guidance for a new anti-trafficking rule that will prohibit U.S.-facilitated trafficking occurring abroad. The EO states:

More than 20 million men, women, and children throughout the world are victims of severe forms of trafficking in persons….

***

The United States has long had a zero-tolerance policy regarding Government employees and contractor personnel engaging in any form of this criminal behavior. As the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the world, the United States Government bears a responsibility to ensure that taxpayer dollars do not contribute to trafficking in persons. By providing our Government workforce with additional tools and training to apply and enforce existing policy, and by providing additional clarity to Government contractors and subcontractors on the steps necessary to fully comply with that policy, this order will help to protect vulnerable individuals as contractors and subcontractors perform vital services and manufacture the goods procured by the United States.

The added protections include expanding the current definition of human trafficking and the contract clause to include the following trafficking-related activities:

• Use of misleading or fraudulent recruiting practices
• Charging employees recruitment fees
• Destroying, concealing, confiscating, or denying access to employee personal identity documents
• Failing to pay return transportation costs for third country nationals (TCNs)

Taking On Taxpayer Funded Human Trafficking

By JARED DURA and ANDRE FRANCISCO

Last month, a key Senate panel passed a bill setting new requirements for overseas contractors in order to prevent human trafficking. A similar amendment was included in the House's version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act (S. 2234) was passed by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on June 29. The Act requires that U.S. government contractors or subcontractors with contracts worth $1 million or more be monitored and are subject to investigation if they’re suspected to be trafficking persons. These provisions include preventing practices of soliciting a person by false or fraudulent pretenses, providing inhumane living conditions, or charging employees with exorbitant fees that violate the laws of the country from which an employee is recruited.

Human trafficking is a troubling problem among contractors and subcontractors working for the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. In June 2011, POGO disclosed documents revealing labor trafficking by a KBR subcontractor. In its report, POGO revealed that Najlaa, KBR’s subcontractor, faced no repercussions after it deceived workers into believing they had an opportunity for a well-paying job in Iraq. Instead, the workers were placed in revolting living conditions with no work or wages for months.

These few stories of the victims of human trafficking are only the “tip of the iceberg” according to Commissioner Dov Zakheim of the Commission on Wartime Contracting, which produced a major report on the prevalence of human trafficking in Iraq and Afghanistan. Companies are profiting in the name of the American people by exploiting these laborers who are providing daily, necessary services to U.S. troops.

Key NDAA Reforms: Government Contracting Edition

By SCOTT AMEY and SUZANNE DERSHOWITZ

Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee will debate and vote on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Last week, the House Rules Committee scrapped a number of key amendments to their version of the NDAA that POGO supported for smarter defense spending and greater government accountability. But there were some good contracting provisions in the House version of the NDAA that we noted before the floor vote.

Although we’re glad that Amendment #132—aimed at preventing contractors from using U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund human trafficking—passed the House, we are disappointed that several key amendments that would have helped rein in the growing costs of government contracting got scrapped from the House bill.

While several of the amendments discussed below did not see the light of day on the House floor, we are hopeful that comparable measures will make it into the Senate version of the NDAA.

Nine Amendments for More Savings, Security, and Accountability in the Defense Budget

By BRYAN RAHIJA

Just yesterday, POGO sent a letter to the House of Representatives calling for support of nine amendments to the House's National Defense Authorization Act of fiscal year 2013 that would lead to more savings, security, and accountability. These amendments reflect many of the recommendations POGO made in its updated Spending Less, Spending Smarter report. 

In a nutshell, these amendments would:

• Prevent U.S. taxpayer-financed human trafficking
• Bring the amount that defense contractors can bill taxpayers for their employees' compensation down to a more reasonable level 
• Reduce funding for a billion-dollar nuclear boondoggle
• Defer development of a super high-tech bomber for which there is no urgent need
• Stop the rollback of oversight of nuclear weapons laboratories
• Replace the most expensive variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with affordable jets that we already have
• Shed light on the true cost of service contractors
• Close a contracting loophole that allows contractors to NOT disclose costs that went into certain goods and services
• Trim the fat in the Pentagon's bloated bureaucracy

Good stuff, right?

We'll be taking a closer look at each amendment on the blog throughout the week. In the meantime—big ups to the following Reps. for their hard work and support on these amendments:

• Leonard Boswell (D-IA) 
• Mike Coffman (R-CO) 
• Gerry Connolly (D-VA)
• John Conyers (D-MI) 
• Keith Ellison (D-MN) 
• Hank Johnson (D-GA)
• James Lankford (R-OK) 
• Ed Markey (D-MA)
• George Miller (D-CA)
• Loretta Sanchez (D-CA)
• Jackie Speier (D-CA) 
• Paul Tonko (D-NY) 
• Peter Visclosky (D-IN) 
• Peter Welch (D-VT)

Get the full rundown on the amendments and their sponsors here, and stay tuned for more.

Bryan Rahija is POGO's blog editor.

America’s Shame: The U.S. Government's Human Trafficking Dilemma

By JOE NEWMAN

For Vinnie Tuivaga, the offer was the answer to a prayer: A job in a luxury hotel in Dubai--the so-called Las Vegas of the Persian Gulf--making five times what she was earning as a hair stylist in her native Fiji.

She jumped at the chance, even if it meant paying an upfront commission to the recruiter.

You probably know how this story is going to end. There was no high-paying job, luxury location or easy work.

Tuivaga and other Fijians ended up in Iraq where they lived in shipping containers and existed in what amounted to indentured servitude.

Journalist Sarah Stillman told Tuivaga’s story and that of tens of thousands of other foreign workers in acute detail almost a year ago in her New Yorker piece, “The Invisible Army.” 

In some cases, Stillman found more severe abuses and more squalid living conditions than what Tuivaga and her fellow Fijians experienced.

But like Tuivaga, thousands of foreign nationals in the U.S. government’s invisible army ended up in Iraq and Afghanistan war zones because they fell victim to human traffickers.

From Comfort Capsules to Human Trafficking, Schwellenbach's Investigations 'Ahead of the Curve'

By DANA LIEBELSON

The "comfort capsules," as the Air Force so aptly dubbed them, had everything a discriminating world traveler could want: swiveling leather chairs, couches, wall-to-wall carpeting and a 37-inch flat-screen video monitor with stereo speakers, as well as other amenities a four-star general might need when flying on Uncle Sam's dime.

Heck, the chairs were even re-upholstered from brown to “Air Force blue” at a cost to taxpayers of $21,000 per four chairs. While the Air Force was spending millions of taxpayer dollars on these capsules, men and women on the frontlines were flying on torn-up netting.

After a Project On Government Oversight (POGO) investigation exposed the details in the summer of 2008, top military officials sputtered denials, and the news outraged Congress, which had twice told the Pentagon that the money needed to be spent on “higher priority” needs. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Colbert Report all followed the story.

It was an investigation that further strengthened POGO’s reputation as a Pentagon watchdog and helped make a name for Nick Schwellenbach, the 26-year-old  POGO national security investigator who unearthed the scandal.

For Schwellenbach, whose last day as POGO’s director of investigations is this week, exposing the comfort capsules was one of the highlights of his career, which has included investigating the failures of the military whistleblower protection system, spurring reforms in how the U.S. deals with human trafficking, and exposing cost overruns in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter—among other things.

New Legislation Includes POGO's Recommendations for Ending Human Trafficking in U.S. War Zones

By DANA LIEBELSON

U.S. taxpayers unknowingly fund human trafficking in Iraq and Afghanistan because of poor contractor oversight--but bipartisan Members of Congress are cracking down on this deplorable crime. A new bill introduced on Monday in the House and the Senate incorporates many of POGO's recommendations for stopping U.S. contractors and subcontractors from getting away with modern-day slavery. Some contractors may complain, but both versions of the bill deserve resounding support from the public.

The End Trafficking in Government Contracting Act (S. 2234 and H.R. 4259) is sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) respectively, along with many notable cosponsors. The legislation is the long-awaited response to a variety of reports from war zones over the course of several years—including the Commission on Wartime Contracting’s final report, which found “tragic evidence of the recurrent problem of trafficking in person by labor brokers or subcontractors of contingency contractors.”

POGO Director of Investigations Nick Schwellenbach testified before a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on this issue in November.

The legislation includes many of the important recommendations POGO made at that hearing. For example, it expands the definition of “fraudulent recruiting” to include the recruiting of laborers who work on U.S. government contractors outside the U.S. At present, the law only applies to those who are recruited to work in the U.S.  The bills also requires anti-trafficking in persons clauses to be included in contracts—a recommendation POGO made, as it helps contracting officers hold contractors accountable.

McCaskill, Webb Introduce Wartime Contracting Legislation that Could Save Taxpayers Billions

Senator Jim Webb and the Commission on Wartime Contracting.

By NEIL GORDON and JAKE WIENS

Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Jim Webb (D-VA) have introduced the Comprehensive Contingency Contracting Reform Act of 2012 (S. 2139), a bill that will greatly enhance transparency, sustainability, and accountability in overseas contingency operation contracting by the Department of Defense (DoD), the State Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The bill is a response to the recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan (CWC), which submitted its final contingency contracting report to Congress in August. 

Here’s a look at several of the good-government and contingency contracting reforms in the bill:

More DoD Investigations of Allegations of U.S. Contractor-Fueled Human Trafficking

By NICK SCHWELLENBACH

It appears that Fiscal Year 2011 saw more Defense Department criminal investigations of alleged human trafficking by its contractor supply chain than in any one of the last five years, according to a Pentagon inspector general report publicly released today (it is dated January 17).

All three investigations involved or allegedly involved U.S. government contractors or subcontractors in Southwest Asia: Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Here’s how the inspector general describes the three cases in its report:

• The U.S. Army investigated an allegation that Philippine women were being sold into sexual and domestic servitude for DoD contractor personnel at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, and that their passports had been withheld, preventing them from leaving the country. The U.S. Army investigated allegations against an individual with no DoD or DoD-contractor affiliation, as well as three DoD contractor personnel. The investigators found sufficient evidence to support an allegation of Transnational Slavery (under the Kuwait Criminal Code) against the non-DoD individual, whose case was referred to and accepted by the Kuwait Criminal Investigation Division in September 2010. U.S. Army investigators determined that allegations against the three DoD contractor personnel were unfounded.

• The U.S. Air Force initiated an investigation on April 28, 2011, based upon information alleging that a subcontractor in Iraq was delaying the payment of salaries from its contracted drivers for a period of three to four months, withholding their passports, and coercing employees to sign employment contracts under threat of abandonment. On July 15, 2011, the information pertaining to human trafficking was passed to the office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the U.S. Embassy, in Baghdad, Iraq for investigation.

• The Defense Criminal Investigative Service had an open investigation of possible labor-related human trafficking violations by a sub-contractor in Afghanistan. As of December 2011, the investigation was ongoing.

In my testimony before Congress in November last year on whether government enforcement is lacking in this area, I summarized the public reporting of the DoD’s investigative activity of allegations of human trafficking by its contract workforce. According to publicly available Department of Justice (DOJ) reports on human trafficking enforcement, which summarize investigative activity across the federal government, there were no Defense Department investigations into trafficking in persons in 2006 and 2007. The section detailing the military’s efforts is altogether missing in the 2008 annual report. The Justice Department declined to comment on the missing section in its 2008 report when I asked the DOJ about this in 2010. In the 2009 report, the most recent available online (the report is dated July 2010), this section is also missing.

New Podcast: Activists Talk to POGO about Human Trafficking and Government Contractors

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

You might not realize it, but U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used to fund labor trafficking. U.S. government contractors working in contingency zones often bring in laborers for various projects through subcontrators. But these laborers—usually men from poor, rural areas in places like India—are often taken advantage of. They're forced to live in appalling conditions, and sometimes promises of work never materialize, despite the enormous sums that the laborers pay to get to job sites. 

All of this is enabled by a lack of oversight from the U.S. federal government.

POGO’s podcast team recently sat down with Sam McCahon and Sindhu Kavinamannil, two activists who are making a documentary about this labor trafficking process.

McCahon is a former federal prosecutor, former general counsel for Agility (a major Pentagon contractor), and is currently in private practice with his law firm, McCahon Law LLC.

Kavinamannil  is a certified fraud examiner, has experience in establishing and maintaining compliance programs in Iraq, Kuwait, and India, and is the CEO of Compliance Consulting Services.

We ended up having a fascinating discussion about the intricacies of this often-overlooked issue.

Listen to the podcast here, and make sure to subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes for discussion on other important topics.

(Want to see what Sindhu and Sam look like? Check out our video trailer for this podcast below the jump.)

New Video: U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Facilitating Human Labor Trafficking on Military Bases

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

U.S. taxpayers are paying contractors who participate in human trafficking on U.S. military bases around the world. Thousands of poor, rural men are being held in warehouses for months without pay after promises of high salaries. These men are used to build and maintain U.S. military bases in combat zones, and they are being routinely exploited by a subcontractor system with little oversight.

Sindhu P. Kavinamannil and Sam W. McCahon are making a documentary about human labor trafficking. Recently, they sat down at POGO to record a podcast about their findings.

Check out the short teaser above, and stay tuned for the full podcast later this week.

Andre Francisco is a POGO Communications Associate

Follow @andrefrancisco