CBO: Iraq contracts close to hitting $100 billion mark

The U.S. paid out $85 billion to private contractors in the Iraq theater between 2003 and 2007, amounting to about 20 percent of the government’s expenditure on the war, according to a new government report.

The country has relied much more heavily on contractors in Iraq than in other conflicts, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that was requested by the Senate Budget Committee.

{mosads}“It is not new for the U.S. military to rely on contractors,” said CBO Director Peter Orszag at a news conference. “It is, however, exceptional the degree to which the military is currently relying on such contractors.”

Currently there are at least 190,000 contract employees working in the Iraq theater, according to the report, and the ratio is approximately one contractor per U.S. service member.

The report closely examined spending on security operations, estimated to be about $6-$10 billion between 2003 and 2007.

“Perhaps the most attention has been driven to private security contractors, the guys with the guns, and they have been a particular focus of attention,” Orszag stated.

Democrats have scrutinized Blackwater Worldwide, which has received large amounts of money for its security services but has also come under fire for high-profile incidents in Iraq.

Orszag noted that a recent contract, worth about $100 million, received special attention from CBO. In the end, however, the investigators found that “the cost of having an Army contingent provide the same services as Blackwater appears to be roughly the same as the cost of the contract itself.”