Pentagon's Largest Overseas Project Over Budget and Past Deadline
Congressmen, GAO slam troubled construction project on base in Germany.
June 29, 2007 — -- The Kaiserslautern Military Community Center, also known as K-Town, was supposed to have been built by December 2005 and cost $150 million. Today, the project is still far from completion, pocked with vandalism and shoddy construction, and may end up costing well over $200 million.
K-Town was meant to house a giant mall, retail shops, slot machines, restaurants, and hundreds of housing rooms for military personnel on Ramstein U.S. Air Force Base in Germany.
It was to be the largest Pentagon overseas construction project, overseen by the Air Force but contracted out by semi-official German entities according to a previous agreement between Germany and the United States.
At a hearing Thursday investigating why the project was so delayed and over budget, members of congress on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee demanded accountability from the Air Force.
"The construction has been deficient, and U.S. oversight has been wholly inadequate," said Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. "How could this have happened? How could construction of a modern-day facility in a Western country on a U.S. military base resemble the shoddy and makeshift practices of a war zone?"
The heat came from both sides of the aisle. Ranking Member Tom Davis, R-Va., was equally concerned, but warned in a prepared statement, "The GAO audit findings being presented today are only preliminary. Criminal and administrative investigations of the project are underway. Without the final results of those efforts, we are not in a position to get the full story in this hearing. It might have been wiser to wait."
Air Force Brigadier General Danny Gardner defended the Air Force at the hearing and placed some of the blame on the German contracting firm.
"German federal construction law shields contractors from much of the risk routinely borne by U.S. construction firms," Gardner said. "Therefore, owners have less leverage and recourse than provided for under the federal acquisition regulations used in stateside construction."
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