American Builder’s Failures in Iraq Widespread; $365M, 8 Of 11 Orders Terminated/Incomplete

[babylonsister]

An American Builder’s Failures in Iraq Are Found to Have Been More Widespread

By JAMES GLANZ
Published: January 29, 2008


Rebuilding failures by one of the most heavily criticized companies working in Iraq, the American construction giant Parsons, were much more widespread than previously disclosed and touched on nearly every aspect of the company’s operation in the country, according to a report released Monday by a federal oversight agency.

Previous reports by federal inspectors and by news organizations identified numerous examples of construction failures in Parsons Corporation projects in Iraq, including dozens of uncompleted or shoddily built health care clinics and border forts, as well as disastrous sewage and plumbing problems at the Baghdad police academy that left parts of it unusable.

But the new report, by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent federal agency, examined nearly 200 Parsons construction projects contained in 11 major “job orders” paid for in a huge rebuilding contract. There were also three other nonconstruction orders. The total cost of the work to the United States was $365 million.

The new report finds that 8 of the 11 rebuilding orders were terminated by the United States before they were completed, for reasons including weak contract oversight, unrealistic schedules, a failure to report problems in a timely fashion and poor supervision by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which managed the contracts.

“There was a confluence of shortfalls here,” said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who leads the inspector general’s office. “It was obviously an unworkable plan.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/world/middleeast/29reconstruction.html?ref=world

[Systematic Chaos]

1. But hey!!

As long as some fatcat bitchass motherfuckers made bank, it's all good, right?

Sometimes there just aren't any words....

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. Meanwhile, we continue to sell off our infrastructure here because we cannot maintain the roadways.

Heckuva job, just a heckuva job...

[Solly Mack]

3. cash cow

[mdmc]

4. have we won yet?

[Wizard777]

5. But we must makes sacrifices for the war.

Meanwhile Halliburton won't lift a finger until they have been paid twice.