Semana: “Through the Eyes of the FARC” Three quick U.S. policy updates
Jun 122007

Report: half of U.S. military aid goes through private contractors

Contractors, U.S. Aid Add comments

The State and Defense Departments have issued their annual report to Congress on private U.S. contractors’ activities in Colombia. (It is available here as a 10-megabyte PDF file.) The report, covering 2006, is a very important document – and has often been difficult to obtain. The last edition we had seen covered 2002.

Here are some highlights:

  • The State and Defense Departments spent $309.6 million on private contractors carrying out military and police assistance programs in Colombia last year. That is roughly half of the $632 million in military and police aid that we estimate Colombia received in 2006.
  • Funding for contractors in Colombia has doubled in four years. In 2002, aid through contractors totaled just over $150 million, about three-eighths of the $400 million in military and police aid Colombia received that year.
  • One company – Dyncorp, which carries out the aerial herbicide fumigation program – accounted for fully one-quarter of all U.S. military and police aid to Colombia last year, with $164.3 million. That is roughly double the $85.6 million that DynCorp was reported to be earning in 2002.

Here is a summary table of the contractors listed in the report. Read the report for more information on each, including a description of contract activities, assessments of the risk to contractors’ safety, and the plan – if any – to turn over responsibilities to Colombian forces.

Contractor 2006 Amount Contracting Agency
DynCorp International $164,260,877 State Department
Lockheed-Martin (Includes Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems – OPTEC / Lockheed Martin Technology Services / Lockheed Martin Mission Support) $79,564,221 State Department, Defense Department
ARINC $29,187,000 State Department, Defense Department
King Aerospace $9,036,310 Defense Department
ITT $6,533,502 Defense Department
Oakley Networks $5,000,000 State Department
MANTECH $4,704,955 Defense Department
Northrop Grumman Information Technology International / Northrop Grumman Mission Systems $3,330,863 Defense Department
Telford Aviation $2,783,000 Defense Department
PAE Government Services $2,540,000 Defense Department
OMNITEMPUS $1,000,000 Defense Department
CACI $555,230 Defense Department
Tate Incorporated $420,603 Defense Department
Construction, Consulting and Engineering (CCE) $300,000 Defense Department
Chenega Federal Systems $200,000 Defense Department
U.S. Naval Mission Bogotá Riverine Plans Officer $200,000 Defense Department
Total $309,616,561

Share This

2 Responses to “Report: half of U.S. military aid goes through private contractors”

  1. caracho Says:
    June 13th, 2007 at 7:16 am

    A real story would be if the State Department’s Foreign Service maintained a talent pool of spray pilots and helicopter mechanics that it could tap so that this work did not have to be contracted out. If Congress required the same reporting for non-military, non-police assistance, you would see similar percentages of outsourcing to experts for alternative development and other economic and social development projects.

  2. William deB. Mills Says:
    June 13th, 2007 at 2:11 pm

    The United Nations working group on mercenaries has issued a report that merits close reading by everyone concerned with the quality of our lives, the state of democracy, and governance of our world.
    Key passages on Iraq (see http://shadowedforest.blogspot.com/2007/05/mercenaries.html) are by no means irrelevant to events in Colombia.

Leave a Reply