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US's Iraq Rebuilding Contracts to Go to U.S. Firms
The U.S. Agency for International Development on Wednesday said that post-war reconstruction contracts for Iraq totaling $1.9 billion will go to yet-undetermined American firms. Sounds fair. We got the contract to take the country apart, we should get the contract to put it back together... Half of the rebuilding work, however, will be open to subcontractors from around the world. The winning prime contractors, which will be announced by the end of the month, will hand-pick subcontractors. I'll be highly cheesed if the majority aren't American, British, or Australian, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Kuwaiti and Qatari, not necessarily in that order... The government's development agency plans to spend a total of $2.4 billion in Iraq, $1.9 billion of it on rebuilding infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and water treatment and power plants. The remaining $500 million will go to humanitarian aid. "Federal law requires us to use American companies (as prime contractors) for competitive bids," USAID's administrator Andrew Natsios told a press conference. "Subcontracts are open to any country anywhere in the world." As long as they're not French or German... British politicians and engineering and construction firms have complained about being excluded from bidding for USAID's contracts. Natsios, however, said that British procurement company Crown Agents would be in charge of purchasing activities in the Gulf region for USAID's Iraqi initiatives. "We have had extensive discussions (with British companies) and there is no doubt that some of the American funds will go to British subcontractors," Natsios said. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-03-26 |
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