White House wrote multibillion-dollar loophole for corrupt business practices

February 23, 2008
White House wrote multibillion-dollar loophole for corrupt business practices

The White House has written a multibillion-dollar loophole into a proposed crackdown on contract fraud, drawing the attention of the government's top watchdog of U.S. spending in Iraq.

The loophole would allow companies performing government work overseas to avoid having to report contract abuse. A review of documents shows it was added by Bush administration policy writers after they received a draft of the proposed rule from the Justice Department.