Should Three Officers Who Failed To Halt The Construction OF A New Command Center In Afghanistan Now Be Held Accountable?

Question to ask
1 when where the plans made?
2 how long did it take to build at what phase of building was it?
3 what information did they have?
4 how many people / soldiers need to be told to stop before pvt Joe snuffy got the word to stop? We all know it has to go threw a lot of pepper work to start a project and unless you are general Patton there is no high ranking general who will leave his ac/ heated office to stop a project. Just saying.

We are supposed to be a good steward of the People's money. 36 million could have paid the salaries of lots and lots of War Fighters.

Construction contracts are rather complex things. Once the contract is awarded and the work commences it is difficult to stop it. The contracting officer must conduct a cost benefit analysis to determine the best COA if the requirement is no longer needed. If it is cheaper to terminate the contract then thats the option they go with, however in a multimillion dollar construction project the costs for teminating will most times exceed the cost of completion. This is because in addition to paying for all the work completed, we also have to pay for removal of the materials purchased by the contractor as well as any tertiary costs incurred by the contractor. In this scenario the contractor did what they were obligated to do so we cannot punish them in anyway. These knee jerk reactions I see online regarding this show how little the contracting process is understood and how little people read the federal acquisition (FAR).

There should definitely be people held accountable for this.

The real answer is "It Depends". I was a construction contracting officer for a long time. A war zone is a very fluid thing. There likely was a tactical "we don't need it" and then a strategic question to answer along the line of "given termination costs, are we better off doing it given we're a 40/60 crap shoot on some options we want to keep open?".

CENTCOM had their say and it trailed off in the DC area. I'd need a lot deeper look than accusatory pundits to make a call on the woulda, coulda, shoulda aspects.

We do build things that in retrospect don't pan out. We just try to make that not happen too often. Sometimes we build things to retain options down the road that we then don't use but at the time needed the viability of the option. Warfighting is never a cost optimal process.

That said, take it in perspective with the overall program. We're talking a small amount. If you really want to see BS construction, take a look at what the UN does under it's politically motivated agenda.

Not knowing all the facts I'll hold judgment on these officers. It is the Senior Officers duties and ours to check waste and abuse. Another case of purse strings wide open and no one watching the door. Once a 15-6 is conducted, then maybe things can be hashed out. I know all of us who've deployed have seen bottomless pits. All I can do now is just shake my head.

$36 million is chump change compared to what DoS burns through (for nothing).

there are many example of this type of problem. you have a contract to do something and it is done even if half way in you know you are going to be closing up shop before it is done. this is a great example of waste. and all of us should be held accountable for our choices. from PVT on up. Now I will say that this is not the only example there is a theater wide issue about making something as we are pulling out and then never using it.

Absolutely. The fraud waste and financial abuse in a combat zone can be (already is) limitless if there's no accountability.

Leaders are supposed to set the positive example, not be a negative one.

When junior enlisted screw up they get corrective punishment. Officers should be too. No excuses!