Numbers Count or How Much You Can Learn from A Few Numbers

Read "U.S. Pays Steep Price for Private Security in Iraq" by Walter Pincus, The Washington Post, October 1, 2007.

"The contract that Blackwater Security Consulting signed in March 2004 with Regency Hotel and Hospital of Kuwait for a 34-person security team offers a view into the private-security business world.....Regency was a subcontractor to another company, ESS Support Services Worldwide, of Cyprus....And ESS was a subcontractor to KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, which had the prime contract with the Defense Department.....Under the contract, Regency was to pay Blackwater $11,082,326 for one year, with a second year option, to put together a 34-person team that would provide security services for the "movement of ESS's staff, management and workforce throughout Kuwait and Iraq and across country borders including the borders of Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey and Jordan."....The team would be made up of two senior managers, 12 middle managers and 20 operators. Regency was to provide Blackwater personnel with housing and necessities, including meals, as well as office space and administrative support. In addition, Regency would provide basic equipment, including vehicles and heavy weapons, while Blackwater was responsible for purchasing individual weapons and ammunition......the average per-day pay to personnel Blackwater hired was $600. According to the schedule of rates, supplies and services attached to the contract, Blackwater charged Regency $1,075 a day for senior managers, $945 a day for middle managers and $815 a day for operators. According to data provided to the House panel, Regency charged ESS an average of $1,100 a day for the same people. How the Blackwater and Regency security charges were passed on by ESS to Halliburton's KBR cannot easily be determined since the catering company was paid on a per-meal basis, with security being a percentage of that charge......

"How much more these costs are compared with the pay of U.S. troops is easier to determine. An unmarried sergeant given Iraq pay and relief from U.S. taxes makes about $83 to $85 a day, given time in service. A married sergeant with children makes about double that, $170 a day. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad overseeing more than 160,000 U.S. troops, makes roughly $180,000 a year, or about $493 a day. That comes out to less than half the fee charged by Blackwater for its senior manager of a 34-man security team."

Comment: Of course, the actual cost of keeping a soldier in Iraq is much more than his pay, but still, one must conclude it is much less than the cost of a Blackwater employee under this contract to provide security to another contractor.

I suspect that there is more public concern and Congressional oversight focused on troop levels than on the budget for support of efforts in Iraq. I also suppose that the Bush administration's belief that private sector efficiency is greater than that of the public sector may be influenced by attitudes formed during the long history of ties of its members to government contractors. JAD