Much Undone In Rebuilding Iraq, Audit Says

[Todd33]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co...rticle/2006/08/01/AR2006080101453.html

While the handover is occurring gradually, it comes as U.S. money dwindles and American officials face a Sept. 30 deadline for choosing which projects to fund with the remaining $2 billion of the $21 billion rebuilding program. More than 500 planned projects have not been started, and the United States lacks a coherent plan for transferring authority to Iraqi control, a report released Tuesday concludes.

"This story is a very disappointing one. Everywhere you look, goals have not been achieved," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who will hold a hearing on the reconstruction today. "I don't think we can ever get back the billions of dollars that have been lost to poor planning, outright fraud and corruption."

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) blamed contractors for not delivering on promised work even as they continued to cash their checks.

"We paid for air conditioning and ended up with a ceiling fan," Dorgan said. "You had a big pot of money and you had a lot of hogs in the creek wallowing and shoving and grunting, trying to get some of it. It looks like they were a lot more effective at getting the money than they were at doing reconstruction."

Some of the biggest U.S. companies have come under intense scrutiny, too, for their performance in Iraq. Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, Bechtel Corp. and Parsons have each received in excess of $1 billion worth of reconstruction work, but have been criticized for not finishing key jobs. Now, all three are wrapping up their reconstruction work and heading home.

"We're basically winding down. Our work is almost finished," Bechtel spokesman Drew Slaton said, adding that the company would be almost completely out of the country by the end of October.

Bechtel was recently removed from a hospital project in southern Iraq that was behind schedule and over budget.

To fill the void when U.S. contractors fail to finish, reconstruction officials are frequently turning to the Iraqi firms already working as subcontractors. Maj. Gen. William H. McCoy, who commands the Corps of Engineers in Iraq, said the Iraqis so far have performed as well -- in some cases, better -- as primary contractors than they did when they worked under U.S. companies.

At the prison project in Nasiriyah, a $49 million maximum-security complex, Al-Basheer took over for Parsons on July 12. The company now has 81 days to prove it can handle the job, under the terms it negotiated when it took over the work.

"It was more efficient and cheaper" to use the Iraqi firm, Bowen said. "And it has energized the economy because it puts Iraqis to work."

A lot of us have been saying this for a longggg time. Let the Iraqis rebuild. Get them to work and get them engaged in their own future. Unemployeed angry young males are what make an insurgent. What did we do instead, we war profiteered. The Bush admin decided to let their corporate friends pillage the US Treasury and boost stock prices. These people are not fit to run a Walmart let alone govern a country.

 

[jpeyton]

Well I'm glad we got those tax cuts. Republicans are all about lightening individual debt and multiplying national debt.

American people are stupid enough to believe that if the debt does not exist in their bank accounts, it doesn't exist period. Just wait a while, the dollar continues to fall against other international currencies.

 

[Used Rugs]

I agree with you 110%.

This administration will go down in history as the most corrupt ever. I think new laws will be pasted down years from now undoing all the damage it has done.
The Republicans are going down with them. Never have I seen such greed, lying, hate used as a tool, fear mongering ect...

Kudos repugs you ruined the states in the shortest time ever seen. There is a special place for them when they........

 

[anthrax]

Obviously, you aren't too impressed with Mr. Bush.. But too bad, you and all the other people who don't like Mr. Bush didn't do enough to prevent Mr. Bush from getting elected twice. As a result, you pay the consequences of the decision he has made for you. Every year, from January to May , you work for him, pay you taxes so you can buy more smart bombs , train more troops so that they can be blown to bits in a iraq.

 

[Buck Armstrong]

Originally posted by: Todd33
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co...rticle/2006/08/01/AR2006080101453.html

While the handover is occurring gradually, it comes as U.S. money dwindles and American officials face a Sept. 30 deadline for choosing which projects to fund with the remaining $2 billion of the $21 billion rebuilding program. More than 500 planned projects have not been started, and the United States lacks a coherent plan for transferring authority to Iraqi control, a report released Tuesday concludes.

"This story is a very disappointing one. Everywhere you look, goals have not been achieved," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who will hold a hearing on the reconstruction today. "I don't think we can ever get back the billions of dollars that have been lost to poor planning, outright fraud and corruption."

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) blamed contractors for not delivering on promised work even as they continued to cash their checks.

"We paid for air conditioning and ended up with a ceiling fan," Dorgan said. "You had a big pot of money and you had a lot of hogs in the creek wallowing and shoving and grunting, trying to get some of it. It looks like they were a lot more effective at getting the money than they were at doing reconstruction."

Some of the biggest U.S. companies have come under intense scrutiny, too, for their performance in Iraq. Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, Bechtel Corp. and Parsons have each received in excess of $1 billion worth of reconstruction work, but have been criticized for not finishing key jobs. Now, all three are wrapping up their reconstruction work and heading home.

"We're basically winding down. Our work is almost finished," Bechtel spokesman Drew Slaton said, adding that the company would be almost completely out of the country by the end of October.

Bechtel was recently removed from a hospital project in southern Iraq that was behind schedule and over budget.

To fill the void when U.S. contractors fail to finish, reconstruction officials are frequently turning to the Iraqi firms already working as subcontractors. Maj. Gen. William H. McCoy, who commands the Corps of Engineers in Iraq, said the Iraqis so far have performed as well -- in some cases, better -- as primary contractors than they did when they worked under U.S. companies.

At the prison project in Nasiriyah, a $49 million maximum-security complex, Al-Basheer took over for Parsons on July 12. The company now has 81 days to prove it can handle the job, under the terms it negotiated when it took over the work.

"It was more efficient and cheaper" to use the Iraqi firm, Bowen said. "And it has energized the economy because it puts Iraqis to work."

A lot of us have been saying this for a longggg time. Let the Iraqis rebuild. Get them to work and get them engaged in their own future. Unemployeed angry young males are what make an insurgent. What did we do instead, we war profiteered. The Bush admin decided to let their corporate friends pillage the US Treasury and boost stock prices. These people are not fit to run a Walmart let alone govern a country.

I'm with you. I'm ashamed of their behavior. Instead of seeing this as a "patriotic", humanitarian, noble undertaking (on which the succes of the entire war effort ultimately depended), they used it as just another excuse to defraud the federal government and soak up as much of the cash as they could in a chaotic situation. This disgusting mess, when combined with the recent record oil profits and prices, and rampant outsourcing, just confirms my opinion that the corporate culture in America is now in direct opposition to the best interests of our country and its people...to say nothing of the cost to the Iraqis, whose country (which we fvcking broke) certainly could've used the missing $9 billion...

Even if that weren't true, its common sense that handing out the work to Iraqi companies would be beneficial. Money for their new economy, jobs for Iraqis (which in and of itself would weaken the insurgency), and the "pride of ownership" and involvement for Iraqis rebuilding their own country.

 

[Used Rugs]

I tried like hell to help Kerry win. My state went Blue. I volunteered for the local Kerry office. I manned the phones for them, passed out flyers and did simple desktop support for the local office. In the end my state was blue!!

 

[ayabe]

I don't even see what they need to discuss as far as where the money should go.

1. Electricity

2. Potable water


It's very simple, these should have been the top two priorities since we got there 3.5 YEARS ago. If these had been the priorities all along I don't think this insurgency would be the problem it is now.

Tell you what, I live in FL, and if I only got electricity 4 hours a day with which to do my cooking and get my internets and cool my friggin house I would be shooting at the people responsible too. And Iraq is a lot hotter than FL.