A Killer in the Ranks

Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Tom Zind, Freelance Writer

High voltage in water supplies has been a major problem in Iraq. Inspectors are routinely testing for these dangerous situations.

KBR, which is being sued by Maseth's family for wrongful death, has consistently denied any direct culpability. KBR has turned down requests for press interviews, including one from EC&M. However, it did issue the following statement to the magazine in October 2008 regarding the electrical safety issue in Iraq.

“KBR's commitment to the safety of all employees and those the company serves remains unwavering. Regarding the specific electrocutions that have been publicly identified, based on KBR's knowledge and information, KBR's activities in Iraq were not responsible for the tragic deaths of these brave soldiers. In regards to Staff Sgt. Maseth, KBR was limited to performing on-call maintenance as directed by the military at the facility where Staff Sgt. Maseth died. KBR is not aware of any link between the work the military directed KBR to perform and Staff Sgt. Maseth's death. KBR continues to perform technical inspections, at the military's direction, on all facilities serviced by KBR throughout Iraq to ensure safe and proper operations for those we serve. KBR has and will continue to fully cooperate with the government on this issue.”

But in the wake of that July hearing, where KBR representatives testified, the agency that issues and oversees military contracts slapped KBR with a Level III “corrective action request.” The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) reportedly issued it based at least partly on its performance of electrical tasks in Iraq. Such a citation is reserved for “serious” compliance problems. As required, KBR has been developing a contract compliance plan.

One electrician speaks out

Allegations of shoddy work by KBR come as no surprise to one journeyman electrician who worked for the company in Iraq. Based on her experience as a KBR employee in Baghdad's Green Zone from July 2004 to July 2006, Debbie Crawford says KBR often lacked the electrical know-how and commitment to adequately repair and maintain electrical systems.

After learning of the electrocutions of the two soldiers, Crawford became a vocal and zealous critic of KBR. In fact, she testified at July's House committee hearing that KBR hired unqualified people to oversee and perform electrical work and largely ignored client and worker safety. In an interview with EC&M, Crawford, who quit her KBR job suffering from “exhaustion,” said a lack of urgency in addressing electrical safety problems and intolerance for those who spoke up about deficiencies permeated the KBR operation she witnessed in Iraq.

“I don't think KBR managers there had the qualifications to know they were doing substandard work — my general foreman there was not even an electrician,” says Crawford, who worked in Iraq as an electrician and had a safety issues-related desk job. “Those who pushed the issues of safety and code compliance were threatened with being sent home or to more dangerous spots like Fallujah. There was some great work done there, but the problem was the work was very inconsistent.”

If KBR was incompetent or negligent, the military may have been its unwitting enabler in some cases. At the July hearing, Tom Bruni, KBR's engineering and construction manager in Iraq, testified that KBR inspected the electrical system at the complex where Maseth was electrocuted prior to the incident and found problems. However, its maintenance contract required an explicit Army repair directive that never came.

“The February 2007 electrical inspection of this building identified a number of deficiencies and was turned over to the military,” Bruni stated. “However, the Army did not authorize KBR to repair the identified electrical deficiencies. In November 2007, at the Army's request, KBR again produced the same February 2007 inspection when the Army was evaluating increased housing needs as a result of the surge; once again, the Army did not authorize KBR to make the repairs.”

Varying interpretations of contract language have hampered a resolution. After Maseth's death, DCMA, the contract manager, reportedly concluded KBR should have made the repairs on its own. But according to July's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee staff investigation, DCMA quickly reversed itself and sided with KBR's interpretation.

Uncertainty over responsibility for electrical safety in Iraq comes as little surprise to Crawford. Though highly critical of KBR's role, she says she also sensed while in Iraq that the military lacked the electrical knowledge and contractor management skills that could have made a difference.

“A lack of oversight and accountability has been the main problem,” she says. “Contractors who know they won't be inspected will cut corners.”

The road ahead

With its Task Force SAFE inspection and repair plan and emerging guidelines on contractor oversight, the military says it is now focused on turning, not cutting, corners on electrical safety in Iraq. Electricians will have to be certified and assigned to appropriate tasks, work will be more rigorously designed and inspected, and repairs and new electrical will be done to accepted standards.

“The NEC has been codified as the standard for all new work, but contracts will also allow systems conforming to the British standard to be inspected to that standard rather than requiring that wiring be ripped out,” says DCMA's Gabbert.

Another element of the corrective actions will be a new “closed loop” process. When a hazard is identified or incident occurs, feedback loops will ensure leaders are informed, service order requests are completed, and re-inspections are performed, Gabbert says.

But even as military commanders in Iraq scramble to make up for expensive lost time in addressing electrical safety, the questions over what happened and why are likely only beginning. All eyes in Washington are now on the Department of Defense Inspector General's office, which is still working on a report that may help determine what led to Maseth's death, in particular. In turn, the findings may well shed more light on the source of the broader electrical safety problems in Iraq, which, because of their scope, toll, and preventability, could become a key exhibit in what is likely to be accelerating post-mortem on the country's problem-plagued occupation of Iraq.

Zind is a freelance writer based in Lee's Summit, Mo. He can be reached at tomzind@att.net.