WASHINGTON — The U.S. government probably is paying for millions of dollars worth of unneeded work by contractors in Iraq because the military is providing inadequate guidance to companies about drawing down their work forces as U.S. troops leave, commissioners on the independent Commission on Wartime Contracting said today.

Each contracted employee can cost thousands of dollars a month, and some 100,000 contracted employees work in Iraq.

Much of the emphasis at a commission hearing was on Houston-based KBR, the largest contractor in the country, which recently won a new contract potentially worth more than $2 billion for support work in Iraq.

Pentagon auditors said late last year the company could save $193 million from January to August of this year by reducing its work force, but auditors estimate in a new report KBR has plans to implement a drawdown during the period that would save only $27 million.

Commissioner Robert Henke asked military contracting officials testifying before the commission why they made no formal response to last year's audit findings, particularly since a possibility exists that new rules could save so much money.

"The savings are going, going, gone," Henke said.