According to a new report from a U.S. watchdog, a U.S. government contractor in Iraq overcharged the Pentagon a whopping amount of money for inexpensive items. The recent findings reflect a control switch that normally cost $7, mysteriously became a $900 expense.

Stuart W. Bowen JR, U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, said review found that Anham, LLC, based in suburban Washington, allowed its subcontractors in Iraq to charge also $3,000 for a $100 circuit breaker, and $80 for a piece of plumbing equipment worth $1.41.

As a result, Bowen’s inspectors are looking to review all Anham contracts with the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan, which total about $3.9 billion.

Hassan S. Judeh, the administration director at Anham’s headquarters, declined to respond to Bowen’s examples because he said the company has not reviewed the report. However Judeh said Anham has a history of providing competitive prices for services, resulting thus far in $132 million in savings to the government.

“Anham prides itself on the way it watches every penny and strives to give always the government the best cost-benefit in a remarkably hostile war environment,” Judeh said in a statement.

A spokesman for the U.S. military did not mention the overcharges but issued a statement regarding the rest of the report, which found that frequent bombings, assassinations and a resurgence in violence by Shiite militias have made Iraq more dangerous now than it was just a year ago.

Jeffrey Buchanan, U.S. military spokesman said they expected, and mentioned many times, that there would be militant and terrorist groups attempting to take advantage of this time as U.S. prepare to fulfill our commitments under the Security Agreement, and these groups attack both Iraqi and U.S. forces.

Buchanan said that Iraq’s security continues to be an important and complex issue, which is more difficult to summarize in short-term trends and figures from our standpoint.”

“Iraq remains a dangerous place to work,” Bowen concluded in his 172-page quarterly report to Congress and the Obama administration on progress, and setbacks, in Iraq. “In my view, it is less safe now than just 12 months ago.”

The report cited the deaths of 15 U.S. soldiers in June, the deadliest month for the U.S. military in Iraq in two years. Most of them were killed in attacks by Shiite militias determined on forcing out American troops on schedule.

The report also noted an increase in rockets launched against the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, where government offices and foreign embassies are located, besides constant assassination attempts against Iraqi political leaders, security forces and judges.

Bowen accused the U.S. military of looking over Iraq’s instability, noting a statement in May by the U.S. military that described Iraq’s security trends as very positive, when only really compared to 2007, when the country was on the brink of civil war. In contrast, Bowen spoke of “the very real fragility” of national security in Iraq today.

The American Embassy in Baghdad will continue the training of training the Iraqi police, should the U.S. military leaves on schedule,  Bowen named the job as challenging for the less than 200 advisers who would be based in three sites but tasked with supporting Iraqi police in ten of Iraq’s 18 provinces. There are an estimated 400,000 police officers in Iraq.
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