Firm blamed for Baghdad embassy flaws gains new jobs

[babylonsister]

Firm blamed for Baghdad embassy flaws gains new jobs
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007



U.S. Embassy Complex under construction in Baghdad's Green Zone | View larger image

WASHINGTON — The Kuwaiti contractor that's building the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad — behind schedule and plagued by allegations of shoddy construction and safety flaws — is still winning lucrative new contracts to build U.S. diplomatic installations overseas.

Late last month, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co. was part of a team that won a $122 million State Department contract to build a U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, according to contract documents.

That's one of at least three State Department jobs, in addition to the Baghdad project, that First Kuwaiti won in association with a U.S. firm, Grunley Walsh LLC of Rockville, Md.

Since 2006, by operating as a subcontractor to Grunley Walsh, First Kuwaiti has won contracts for work on a new U.S. Embassy in Libreville, Gabon; on a consulate in Surabaya, Indonesia; and on the Jeddah project.

Such partnerships are increasingly common as foreign companies try to win shares of embassy construction contracts that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year under the State Department's aggressive building program. Under a 1986 law, only U.S. firms can bid on embassy construction.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/20821.html

[unhappycamper]

1. Aaaaah. The First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co.

http://www.firstkuwaiti.com/services/index.php

FKTC has the following classifications and prequalifications:


- Grade-A Contractor for General Contruction by Kuwait Central Trading Committee (CTC)

- Grade-A Infrastructure and Roads Contractor by Kuwait Central Tendering Committee (CTC)

- Certified Offshore & General Contractor by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) & Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC)

- Prime Contractor for US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

- Major Subcontractor for Halliburton's Kellog Brown & root (KBR)

- Prime Contractor for the US Department of State, pre-qualified for the design and construction of the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq


Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co. was investigated for human trafficking --> An American Plantation in Baghdad, 5. Forced Labor Builds U.S. Embassy in Iraq, The top 25 underreported stories of 2006–2007, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting (FKTC), IRAQ: Rescue Spares Some Workers.

They sound like some mighty fine friends of bushCo.