from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-04-17-bechtel-reconstruction_x.htm
Posted 4/17/2003 4:59 PM Updated 4/17/2003 7:28 PM
Bechtel wins huge Iraq reconstruction contract
WASHINGTON (AP) The government on Thursday awarded Bechtel Corp. a contract that could reach $680 million for helping rebuild Iraq's power, water and sewage systems and repairing airports and a seaport.
The U.S. Agency for International Development said the San Francisco engineering and construction company initially will receive $34.6 million. Bechtel could earn the larger figure over 18 months if Congress approves the funds.
Several Democratic lawmakers have complained the Bush administration did not allow open competitive bidding, inviting a few companies to submit proposals.
One critic, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, said the contract showed that "a troubling pattern is beginning to emerge, as some of the most powerful business interests in the country continue to receive these huge contracts without ... open, transparent bidding."
Wyden and others are sponsoring a bill that would require a public explanation of contracts awarded under a limited bidding process.
The federal agency has defended the procedure as the only way to get help to Iraq quickly.
Other companies invited to bid were Parsons Corp.; Fluor Corp.; Louis Berger Group Inc.; and Washington Group International Inc. A subsidiary of Halliburton Co., which was formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, was invited to bid but decided instead to seek work as a subcontractor.
Bechtel rose from a family business into a privately held international engineering powerhouse. Its executives have included former Secretary of State George Shultz and ex-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.
President Bush named Ross Connelly, a former Bechtel executive, as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Overseas Private Investment Corp. the agency that supports U.S. investment around the globe.
Shultz, interviewed on CNN, said "Bechtel, by its track record, will do an excellent job."
The Bechtel Group and its employees have been among the biggest political givers in the general contracting industry, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington-based group that tracks campaign finance.
The company and its workers contributed at least $277,050 to federal candidates and party committees in the last election cycle, about 57% to Democrats and 43% to Republicans, the center found.
Bechtel gave at least $166,000 to national Republican Party committees, center figures show.
The company has wide experience working overseas, with 47,000 employees on 900 projects in nearly 60 countries.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported in January that Bechtel and least one other U.S. company sold Iraq technology that helped build up its military in the 1980s. The story attributed the information to a German journalist with access to a document on Iraq weapons that was turned over to the United Nations.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, asked about the story, said that the focus at the time was on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Iran and "different administrations, beginning with President Carter, reached different conclusions about the level of military cooperation vis-a-vis Iraq."
Bechtel spokesman Jeff Berger said it was "absolutely false" that the company aided the Iraqi military. The company worked on two projects in Iraq in the 1980s: a hydroelectric dam and a petrochemical plant that was to make a "garden variety" of products including plastics and synthetic rubber, he said. The plant was under construction when Bechtel's involvement ended, Berger said.
In addition to Bechtel's work on utility systems, the contract also provides for rehabilitation or repair of airport facilities and dredging, repair and upgrading of the Umm Qasr seaport in cooperation with other contractors, the government said.
Bechtel may have a role in repair and reconstruction of hospitals, schools, selected government ministry buildings, irrigation facilities and transportation links.
The agency said Bechtel probably would hire subcontractors for many of the projects.
"Through all of its activities, it will also engage the Iraqi population and work to build local capacity," the announcement said.
"Bechtel is honored to have been asked by USAID to help bring humanitarian assistance, economic recovery and infrastructure reconstruction to the Iraqi people," said Tom Hash, president of Bechtel National, Inc.
The question of who rebuilds Iraq has divided the president's advisers and even the two major coalition partners in the current war, the United States and Britain. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has sought deeper U.N. involvement in postwar Iraq than Bush.