U.S.'s Helping Hands in Iraq

Yes, it's time for another installment of "How the US Continues to 'Help' Iraq and the Iraqi People." $30 billion of US taxpayer funds have been spent to "rebuild" in Iraq. How are we doing so far? Well only 30% of the Iraqui people even know there's a rebuilding effort, according to a recent poll. We've been leading teams of US and international graft masters through crappy work for which we're being overcharged (when the jobs are finished) since the mission was "accomplished". Baghdad residents had higher levels of electricity and drinking water during the Saddam era than they do today.

How are we accomplishing this magnificent record of incompetance? Well first of all the US only gives contracts to companies from countries "of the willing" -- you remember them don't you, the list of supportive nations that included less than a handfull of developed nations and a whole lots of places you've never been to, or even heard of. What? You don't think Estonian and Armenian construction firms are up to the level of those from somewhat more (if less willing) nations?

Apparently more than 1/2 of the international firms we could be working with to rebuild Iraq come from "unwilling" nations. Too bad. We've got a point to continue making and we're not going to let the needs of the Iraqi people get in the way! Not when we're trying to teach them how democracy works. (Apparently democracy works in this case by excluding those who disagree with us.)

So who's getting those contracts? (no, no, not even Halliburton can have them all!) Check out the Project on Government Oversite's web pages on these contracts. For instance, from that page, "Most of the Iraq reconstruction contracts have been awarded through a particular type of troubled contracting vehicle, the Orwellian-sounding "Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity" (IDIQ). IDIQs allow the government to award an unspecified amount of future work to approved contractors. Once companies get on this list of approved contractors, they do not have to compete for work, nor is that future work ever publicly announced. As a result, small businesses that would be able to perform many of the tasks authorized under an IDIQ are never given the opportunity to compete for that work. It is estimated that this system costs small businesses, which don't get a chance to compete, $13 billion annually. Furthermore, information about the specific work and the cost of that work is never made publicly available - not even to Members of Congress upon request. As a result of this lack of transparency or accountability, contractors don't have an incentive to keep costs as low as they would in a truly competitive and open marketplace."

Go on over to the page and learn more about these contracting proceedures. If you've ever had the "pleasure" of putting through a contract for your job, you'll love what these guys are allowed to get away with in return for those generous campaign contributions.