The Hindu : U.S. company with political connections bags contract

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 19, 2003

International

International

U.S. company with political connections bags contract

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

A painting depicting war stands in the rubble of the Ministry of Defence in Baghdad on Thursday. — AFP

Washington April 18. In a move that has already raised eyebrows here and overseas, the United States Agency for International Development has awarded the Bechtel Corporation about $ 35 millions to start work in Iraq — the amount which could get as high as $ 700 millions over an 18- month period.

The politically active San Fransisco based corporation which has actively contributed to both Republicans and Democrats over the years will be actively involved in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq, focussing on power, water, sewage systems as also having a role to play in the rehabilitation of airport facilities and upgarding the Umm Qasr seaport in cooperation with partners.

But Democrats on Capitol Hill have criticised the bringing in of Bechtel Corp; but much of the criticism has been on USAID's fast track bidding system rather than on the deep political pockets of the company.

Some Democrats have spoken of the "troubling pattern'' that is beginning to emerge as powerful corporations are beginning to be awarded contracts without any transparent process.

The Bush administration has been saying that even within the present constraints of time the bidding process has been quite intensive.

A criticism in the run up to the war against Iraq has been that major corporations are the only biggest cheerleaders of the administration as they were heading the conflict route since they stood to gain the most in the post-war phase.

One estimate is that the tab for Iraq in the post conflict phase could run as high as $ 100 billions over a 10 year period and one fourth of this will be in the realm of reconstruction.

Suspicion remains

The concern overseas has been that the United States will seek to corner every advantage in Iraq much to the detriment of others in Europe and Asia in the rebuilding phase. The Bush administration has sought to allay fears, but the suspicion remains that those highly critical of Washington during the conflict phase could be left out in the cold.

In addition to the Bechtel Corporation, the other that is meriting perhaps a higher degree of attention was Halliburton which was at one time headed by the Vice-President, Dick Cheney. Halliburton's subsidiary, the KBR, was invited to bid but declined and is now expected to be doing sub-contracting.

Senior law makers have approached the General Accounting Office, GAO, asking it to investigate if all procedures have been followed. The GAO has said that issues pertaining to Iraq, including reconstruction, will be reviewed. "We will not be targeting any particular company. But no company will be off the radar screen'', a spokesman has said.

For its part the USAID has said that all procedures have been followed and that companies have not been pulled out of the "thin air''. Bechtel Corp has had powerful executives like George Shultz, former Secretary of State, and Casper Weinberger, the former Defence Secretary.

According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, the Corporation and its Employees contributed some $ 277,000 dollars to federal candidates and party committees in the last election cycle — 57 per cent to Democrats and 43 per cent to Republicans.

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