Waxman Corporations Angry About Tender

Waxman, Corporations Angry about Tender Process in Iraq

The American-Iraqi Chamber of Commerce, the ambassador to the US of Qatar, several US companies, and Henry Waxman are all angry about the lack of transparency and the appearance of cronyism in the tendering of contracts for Iraqi reconstruction. Sam Kubba of the chamber of commerce said, “Sometimes we feel that they are just going through the motions and that a decision has already been made.” Kubba said tenders issued by the CPA, in which bids sometimes had to be submitted within a couple of days, were often a logistical nightmare as communications problems prevented companies from getting their bids in on time. “The impression you get with such short lead times is that it’s already been given to someone and therefore they don’t mind giving such notice,” he said. “I think everything should be as transparent as possible.”“

http://www.forbes.com/work/

newswire/2003/10/07/rtr1101978.html

One thing that confuses me is that Kubba is talking about the tenders being issued by the CPA. I thought they were all done in Washington by US AID or the Army Corps of Engineers?

Meanwhile, Representative Henry Waxman has issued a wide-ranging letter incisively criticizing what he says is an unresponsiveness of US AID and other tendering agencies, as well as giving evidence that substantial amounts of money are being wasted in Iraq. See:

http://www.mees.com/postedarticles/

oped/a46n40d02.htm