Senator Casey to testify tomorrow at Oversight Committee hearing on electrocution issue
WASHINGTON, DC-Following his meeting with the CEO of KBR Inc., William Utt, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today sent follow-up letters to both Mr. Utt and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in regards to the electrocution issue.
“My meeting with Mr. Utt raised more questions than it answered with respect to the death of Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth and other U.S. military personnel who have been killed by electrocutions in Iraq,” said Senator Casey. “The concerns raised by the series of accidental electrocutions and electrical fires at U.S. military facilities in Iraq are growing. They must be immediately addressed.”
Senator Casey has pressured the Department of Defense (DoD) for answers on the issue of electrocution-related deaths in Iraq since learning about this fatal problem from Cheryl Harris, mother of Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth who was electrocuted while taking a shower in Iraq. Last month, Senator Casey sent a letter to General David Petraeus on testimony he gave stating that 13 individuals, not 12 as originally thought, have been electrocuted in Iraq since September 2003. In the letter, Senator Casey specifically referenced an Army safety report issued in October of 2004 which stated that several soldiers were shocked while in the shower.
Last month, after meeting with Cheryl Harris, Senator Casey sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, demanding to know what steps the Department of Defense (DOD) has taken to ensure that no other soldiers serving in Iraq are electrocuted due to faulty wiring or negligent maintenance.
According to the Army Criminal Investigation Division, Staff Sergeant Maseth died when the electricity in the shower facility short-circuited because an electric water pump on the rooftop was not properly grounded. An initial investigation by the DOD’s Criminal Investigative Division office found that the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) was aware of the electrical safety hazard posed by this shower facility prior to the death of Staff Sgt. Maseth. The Pentagon has turned over the investigation to the Department’s Inspector General for further investigation.
In April, Senator Casey asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate all electrocution-related deaths or injuries of military and contract personnel in Iraq. Because the Inspector General (IG) of the DOD was already conducting an ongoing investigation, the GAO declined Senator Casey’s request.
Full text of the letters below:
Dear Mr. Secretary:
Thank you for your acknowledgement of my June 19th letter to you regarding the series of accidental electrocutions in Iraq that may have killed as many as 16 U.S. military personnel. While I await the response of Mr. John Young, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, I wanted to report to you on my meeting last Friday with Mr. William Utt, the President and Chief Executive Officer of KBR, Inc. and raise a series of follow-up questions.
In my meeting with Mr. Utt, the following issues came to light:
Mr. Utt claims that the senior leadership of KBR was not aware of the pattern of deaths of U.S. military personnel in Iraq by accidental electrocutions until KBR learned of the death, in January 2008, of Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth, a native of Shaler, Pennsylvania. Mr. Utt acknowledged that individual KBR employees deployed on the ground in Iraq may have been aware of this troubling trend, but that the Pentagon never formally communicated a concern to KBR over this matter and what, if any, role KBR practices may have played in such electrocutions;
According to KBR’s own exhaustive search of media reports, it concluded that fifteen Americans have died in Iraq due to accidental electrocutions, or two more than the thirteen deaths reported to me by General Petraeus on July 8th, in response to a Question for the Record I submitted following a Foreign Relations Committee hearing. After initial press reports of my meeting with Mr. Utt emerged on Friday afternoon, the Pentagon issued a statement acknowledging that sixteen Americans have in fact died from accidental electrocutions in Iraq;
KBR disavows any responsibility for the death of Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth. Because KBR was given a so-called “Level B” contract engagement for the maintenance of the Radwaniyah Palace Complex, Mr. Utt asserted that KBR was only responsible for specific repairs at the direction of the Army. Mr. Utt contrasted this approach to a “Level A” contract engagement, under which he asserted KBR would have had broader responsibility and leeway to unearth and correct problems it identified at the complex. Accordingly, because the improperly grounded water tank in the building where Staff Sergeant Maseth died was never reported to KBR, the company claims that it bears no connection to his death;
At our Friday meeting, KBR’s senior legal counsel acknowledged the range of possible actions to which DoD has recourse if KBR was found in non-compliance with its contract, including reperformance of action up to termination of the contract. As of today, it does not appear that KBR has suffered any contractual ramifications owing to the deaths of Staff Sergeant Maseth and up to fifteen other U.S. military personnel;
These revelations lead to a series of questions for the Department of Defense:
1) Why did the Department, the U.S. Army, the Defense Contract Management Agency, or any other relevant Pentagon entity not initiate an investigation into the pattern of accidental electrocutions and associated electrical fires when they first started to appear in 2003? Why did the Pentagon wait until this year, after the death of Staff Sergeant Maseth, to initiate a formal investigation? At any time did the Department issue a formal communication to KBR citing the danger posed by electrocutions and related hazards and asking KBR to keep in mind this concern as it engaged in maintenance work?
2) Confusion exists today over the numbers and identities of those U.S. military personnel who have died due to accidental electrocutions. Please provide a comprehensive list of the names of those personnel who have died by electrocution, the manner in which they died, and the dates and locations of their deaths;
3) Please explain why the U.S. Army chose to issue a “Level B” contract engagement to KBR regarding its maintenance responsibilities at the Radwaniyah Palace Complex (RPC), even though an initial site survey in February 2007 conducted by KBR revealed potential grounding issues at this complex and, regarding the building in which Staff Sergeant Maseth died, specific problems with the main circuit panel, the secondary feeder panel, and the water tank;
4) Please provide a copy of the text of the relevant contract provisions and related correspondence between the Department and KBR governing KBR responsibility at the RPC complex, beginning with the initial site survey undertaken in February 2007. In doing so, please explain how the Department of Defense views the distinctions between a Level A, Level B, and Level C contract engagement. I am also requesting a copy of the overarching Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) contract that provides the framework for KBR’s overall presence in Iraq. Finally, I ask for relevant contract provisions with KBR outlining the consequences for poor performance or non-execution of agreed actions in this context;
5) I understand that the death of Staff Sergeant Maseth remains under review by the DoD Inspector General. Has the Pentagon assigned formal responsibility for the deaths of the other fifteen U.S. military personnel electrocuted in Iraq? If so, what punitive consequences, if any, have flowed from those judgments? Have any U.S. military personnel been disciplined? Has KBR or another contractor been penalized? What steps toward accountability has the Department taken?
I recognize the enormity of the challenges you face as Secretary of Defense, overseeing two significant wars simultaneously, but the concerns raised by the series of accidental electrocutions and electrical fires at U.S. military facilities in Iraq are growing. Unless they are promptly addressed, I fear that the Department of Defense will suffer a loss of credibility with American military personnel and their loved ones. I urge you to demand complete accountability for past deaths of American servicemen and women and work to ensure that no more individuals die due to faulty electrical wiring.
Sincerely,
Robert P. Casey, Jr.
United States Senator
Dear Mr. Utt:
Thank you for meeting with Congressman Jason Altmire and me on Friday to discuss our concerns regarding the series of electrocution deaths in Iraq dating back to 2003 and the role, if any, played by KBR, Inc. I appreciate your willingness to engage Members of Congress on a sensitive issue and your stated desire to demonstrate full transparency and cooperation as we move forward.
As I stated on Friday, our meeting raised more questions than it answered with respect to the death of Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth and other U.S. military personnel who have been killed by electrocutions in Iraq. Accordingly, I am conveying to you the following questions and requests for documentation:
In our meeting, you asserted that KBR, following an exhaustive search of press stories related to likely electrocution deaths of U.S. soldiers and other personnel in Iraq, concluded that fifteen Americans have died from such incidents. That number represents two more deaths than the number General Petraeus previously reported to my office. Following our meeting, the Pentagon apparently further revised its final number of deaths, increasing the total to sixteen deaths.
Please provide a comprehensive list of the names of the U.S. military personnel KBR believes have been killed by accidental electrocutions, and their time and place of death;
You disavowed any responsibility by KBR for the death of Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth. Because KBR was given a so-called “Level B” contract engagement to perform preventive maintenance at the Radwaniyah Palace Complex, you asserted that KBR was only responsible for specific repairs at the direction of the Army. Unlike a “Level A” engagement, under which you assert KBR would have had broader responsibility and leeway to unearth and correct problems it identified at the complex, under the Level B engagement that was granted, you maintained that KBR was only responsible for correcting problems at the specific direction of the Army. You went on to declare that because the improperly grounded water tank in the building where Staff Sergeant Maseth died was never reported to KBR, the company bears no connection to his death.
However, Cheryl Harris, the mother of Staff Sergeant Maseth, has testified before a Senate committee that multiple work orders were filed with KBR between June and October 2007 regarding complaints of electrical currents in the bathroom shower where he died.
Does KBR deny the existence of those work orders? If not, why did KBR not immediately respond to those work orders and fix the underlying problem with the improperly grounded water pump, as its Level B task order would have required?
I asked you a series of questions regarding testimony from former KBR electricians on the lack of qualifications exhibited by electricians hired by KBR to do electrical work in Iraq. They cited such examples as not being asked to show their job license or references when hired, not being given a qualifications test, an absence of sufficient training prior to deployment in the field, a lack of needed tools, and serious gaps in supervision.
At our meeting, you laid out a set of policies and procedures that KBR follows when hiring electricians to service its work in Iraq. You promised to provide documentation on KBR’s hiring policy of electricians, the qualifications and references they must provide before being hired, the various training programs offered to electricians prior to and during their time in Iraq, and the level of supervision offered in the field.
Therefore, I request a copy of the set of qualifications for which you screen prospective electricians, a description of the training offered, and a summary of the supervision and quality control protocols utilized by KBR for electrician personnel in Iraq;
During our meeting, I asked you about any corrective action steps KBR has taken since the death of Staff Sergeant Maseth in January. You then referred to some safety upgrades undertaken by KBR.
Please provide written documentation describing those upgrades, and whether they were instigated at the request of the U.S. Army, or undertaken by KBR on its own initiative;
During our meeting, your senior legal counsel described the range of potential ramifications to KBR should it be found in non-compliance of its contractual obligations to the U.S. Army in Iraq.
Please provide a copy of the text of the relevant contract provisions, whether under the overarching Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) contract or individual task orders, laying out such consequences, which range from a reperformance of the required action to termination of the contract;
In its mission statement, KBR lists the values by which it operates. The first value it stipulates is an “Uncompromising Commitment to Health, Safety, and Environment”. The circumstances surrounding the electrocution death of Ryan Maseth and as many as fifteen other Americans have horrified people across our country. I appreciate that KBR has offered to work with the U.S. Congress in a cooperative and transparent fashion. Therefore, I eagerly await your responses as the Congress works to establish accountability for this appalling pattern of deaths in Iraq.
Sincerely,
Robert P. Casey, Jr.
United States Senator
