Ephraim Garcia, 62, was charged in an indictment filed in December 2018 in the District of Columbia with one count of offering a bribe, one count of receiving illegal gratuities, and one count of offering kickbacks.  The indictment further charges Gandhi Raj, 39, with paying illegal gratuities to Garcia.

As alleged in the indictment, Garcia worked in the U.S. Army’s Directorate of Public Works and was involved in the solicitation, award and management of various government contracts related to projects at Camp Arifjan.  In or around September 2015, Garcia allegedly approached an employee of a prime contractor and offered to pay him in exchange for his assistance in steering contracts to a particular subcontractor owned by Raj, Gulf Link Venture Company.  Garcia allegedly told the prime contractor employee that Gulf Link would artificially inflate the cost of certain of its bid proposals, and Garcia, Gulf Link and the prime contractor employee would split the proceeds.  Additionally, over a period of about five years, Garcia and/or members of his immediate family allegedly received over $170,000 in wire transfers from Raj and other individuals associated with Gulf Link and another subcontractor that was bidding on work under the prime contract.

Garcia, who retired from the Air Force in 2000 as a master sergeant, admitted to brokering the meeting, where prosecutors say he and the CEO of the firm Gulf Link Venture Co., Gandhiraj Sankaralingam, offered to pay the employee of Colorado-based Vectrus Systems Corp. to steer some of the company’s government contract business to Gulf Link.

In 2011, Vectrus was awarded the Kuwait base operations security and service support contract, for which the Army had paid out more than $2.7 billion as of 2016, the Pentagon’s Inspector General said in a report four years ago.

Sankaralingam and Garcia, who was a mechanical engineer for the Army’s department of public works on Camp Arifjan, offered to split proceeds from the inflated costs of heating and air conditioning work under that contract — possibly up to $756,000 — with the Vectrus employee if it was awarded to Gulf Link, court records state. Instead, the employee reported the illegal offer to the government.

Officials with the Pentagon IG, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and Army Criminal Investigative Command were involved in the investigation.

Garcia, who also retired after 16 years as an Army civilian in 2016, was arrested in 2019 and indicted the following year. Sankaralingam was also charged in the indictment with conspiring to offer a kickback and paying illegal gratuities to Garcia, but he remains a fugitive.

Under a plea agreement last summer, the government dropped a charge that Garcia had received some $170,000 in illegal gratuities from Sankaralingam and others at Gulf Link and another firm, which they said was sent to Garcia’s adult daughters’ bank accounts from 2010 to 2015.

“Mr. Garcia emphatically denies that this money was derived illegally,” his attorneys said pleading for the judge’s leniency in sentencing, citing their client’s age, declining health and the difficulties his family has suffered since he was arrested.

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of eight to 10 years and a fine of $165,000, citing Garcia’s net worth of more than $1 million.

But in a letter to the judge, Garcia sought probation and home confinement, citing his impoverished upbringing in the Philippines, his honorable military service, his wife’s worsening health over stress from his arrest, and his daughter’s acid reflux.

In response, prosecutors said his involvement in the kickback conspiracy was not a “one-time ‘lapse in judgment,” and suggested to D.C. District Judge Amit P. Mehta that if he were inclined toward leniency he does not sentence Garcia to less than five years in prison.

Garcia was sentenced to two years, a $200 fine, and three years of probation. The court document giving Mehta’s reasons for the sentence remains sealed.

Although Kandahar is over 7,000km from my current home in the UK, I had absolutely no hesitation in accepting the proposed role and one month later, found myself boarding the flight ahead of an exciting three week experience.

Carrying my rucksack and a lot of enthusiasm, I was welcomed at Passenger Arrivals – better known as "Taliban Last Stand" – by a smiling Ronald Semsem, KBR's Senior Administrator, who escorted me to the KBR compound to meet the in-theatre management and my new team at KAF.

In view of the location, several security procedures were involved and following KBR's routine for each new visitor, I was given a safety briefing on how to follow the different procedures depending on each possible situation of risk. Only then did I truly appreciate the severity of the dangers I could encounter on the base, however by acknowledging and considering them, I made myself aware of the necessary actions that must be followed in the event of each.

These procedures together with KBR's Zero Harm campaign are actively encouraged by all personnel within the work place and on a daily basis with trainings, safety talks and drills that aim to make accident-free days an achievable outcome.

Once the induction was concluded and I had been introduced to my accommodation, Ronald took me for a tour around the facilities on the base. KAF is one of two international airports in Afghanistan and is one of the largest military bases with an impressive size of 16 square km and more than 15,000 people currently living on the base (previously more than 30,000). KAF could be compared to a small village where contractors and soldiers from all around the world live and work together.

KBR has been at KAF since 2006, working under contract for the UK military which supports NATO. KBR aids the airfield operations in the desert of Kandahar with arduous conditions and temperatures over 50C in the summer days (over 120F) and -12c (10F) in the winter nights - further demonstrating KBR's capability of operating in remote environments. KBR is in charge of the overall maintenance of the military base and supports all the works required such as engineering support services, upkeep of road and grounds, vehicle maintenance, airfield ground lighting, transport and pest control.

My tour finished with a visit to the Design Team where I would meet my new colleagues for the duration of my deployment. These included a Document Controller, a Civils Surveyor who keeps all the base maps up-to-date and available for NATO requests, an Estate Surveyor who undertakes all conditional surveys, a CAD Technician who is responsible for dig permits and underground scanning, and the Mechanical & Electrical Technical Officers. My specific role as the new Building & Civil Engineering Technical Officer consisted of developing a statement of work with engineering technical solutions for work orders requested by the client through KBR's Helpdesk.

Working on the Design Team at Kandahar is not dissimilar to working in the office at Leatherhead – US and British standards are followed for engineering solutions and projects are supported by a friendly team that is always willing to assist and from whom I gained knowledge and experience. KBR reflects its values and commitments for quality delivery of projects with the same level of passion in Afghanistan as it does in the UK.

In regards to life on the base itself, there is a seven day work week and with not many amenities as one would expect in a town of equivalent size, most people tend to invest their spare time in self-improvement activities such as undertaking distance learning or focusing on exercise. In addition to the gym within the KBR compound, there is a free NATO gym with many classes and a good selection of equipment, and a welfare room for KBR employees in addition to the friendly group of people that was always willing to meet up for socializing.

The culture of diversity that KBR promotes in offices and locations around the world extends to Afghanistan where diversity is actively embraced and effectively implemented. As a female on base, I was certainly in the minority but was treated as an equal peer by my colleagues who were always supportive and approachable.

I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to revisit KAF for a longer period after my initial trip. During my second visit, I had the immense satisfaction of seeing a lot of progress being made on many of the works with which I was originally involved. Overall, my time at KAF was a fantastic professional experience in addition to being an intense personal life experience.