Military contracting – Afghanistan creates pretext for unscrutinized increases

Much, possibly most, spending done without competitive bidding.

OTTAWA, July 18, 2007: The Harper Conservatives are using the Afghanistan war as a pretext for stepping up big-budget contracts for military hardware, much of it undisclosed to the public, according to research by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It is possible that more than half these contracts are awarded without competition.

Military spending had been on the rise before 2006, but Stephen Harper's election as Prime Minister put things in high gear. So says researcher Stephen Staples, author of the study No Bang for the Buck: Military contracting and public accountability, which was published in June. Staples, the Director of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, has recently been in the news because military officials have been secretly compiling a file on him.

"Afghanistan is being used to justify all kinds of things that aren't even related to the war, for example the Chinook helicopters, which won't be available until after 2009, " says Staples. "There has been a mad rush forward of massive spending that hadn't happened under the Liberals," he says. With the Conservatives in power, the defence lobby has "a feeling our guys are in power now so spend as much as you can."

The recent choice of naval patrol vessels over Arctic icebreakers would appear to confirm this interpretation.

Staples' study aroused the ire of national defence officials by showing that 40 percent of DND contracts listed in a publicly-accessible database is done on a non-competitive or sole-source basis.

The study looked at the number of contracts and how many were deemed non-competitive. It also looked at the value of those contracts. What really surprised the researchers is that, while 40 percent of contracts go without bidding, "the value of non-competitive contracts has doubled in the last two years," says Staples. The government claims his information is incomplete, which, Staples says, "doesn't change anything we said. We knew the database was not all-inclusive. So much contracting is now going into secret areas of the military budget."

In Afghanistan, Staples says, contracts are increasingly going sole-source, so the study numbers may be low. "When you figure in new contracts from 2006, the actual figure is probably much higher. The $3.4 billion C17 contract awarded to Boeing for transport aircraft is not included. Afghanistan is driving more spending into the secret part of the budget, stuff that's just not being reported on."

Staples says Canada, "virtually has a secret army. So much of the military budget is undisclosed," including the Joint Task Force 2 (JTF 2) special commandos and the total extent of purchases. Government officials stress the need for secrecy to protect soldiers, he says, using the example of flak jackets. The government says it should not disclose how they are made so enemies will not know how to counter them.

"That's a red herring," says Staples. "Government records don't go into that kind of detail. They could still say 'protective clothing' without giving away secrets." Instead, the government simply hides the spending.

Staples is concerned about the reports that the government is watching him. "Monitoring and doing research, that's fair game. To try to hide it is called spying." While he doesn't mind the government keeping a file on his research, "I don't want people to feel constrained and not want to participate in public debate for fear of being watched by the government. It has a chilling effect on democracy."

Related individuals, organizations and significant events
Arctic sovereignty slogan masks win for military lobby
Privatization - Harper Conservatives quietly eye options

Harper Conservative vs. Public Values Frame
  Rebuilding Canada's military / Corporate subsidies, uncompetitive contracting
  Security / Secrecy
  Higher military spending to combat threats / Greater constituency for war

Links and sources
  No Bang for the Buck: Military contracting and public accountability, Stephen Staples, CCPA, June 11, 2007
  Military tried to cover up file on outspoken critic, Canada.com, July 13, 2007
  Silent surge in contractor 'armies', Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Posted: July 17, 2007

Harper Index (HarperIndex.ca) is a project of the Golden Lake Institute and the online publication StraightGoods.ca