Investigators: Millions in Iraq contracts never finished

BobbyDelray

4-27-2008 10:01 PM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/6b06747d-5d86-4672-83d8-5ba0427a08a4/9D41EAE7-23B5-4B07-8BA6-249648506484/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_RECONSTRUCTION?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_RECONSTRUCTION?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" style="font-size: 11px;">hosted.ap.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_RECONSTRUCTION?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_RECONSTRUCTION?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">uneven reconstruction effort that has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_RECONSTRUCTION?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">U.S. Agency for International Development contracted with Bechtel Corp. in 2004 to construct a $50 million children's hospital in Basra, only to "essentially terminate" the project in 2006 because of monthslong delays</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_RECONSTRUCTION?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">But rather than terminate the project, U.S. officials modified the contract to change the scope of the work</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_RECONSTRUCTION?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">when in fact the hospital was only 35 percent complete </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_RECONSTRUCTION?SITE=DCUSN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">"The report paints a depressing picture of money being poured into failed Iraq reconstruction projects - contractors are killed, projects are blown up just before being completed, or the contractor just stops doing the work," she said.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/9D41EAE7-23B5-4B07-8BA6-249648506484/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

BobbyDelray says:

Its time to call for the heads of those responsible. It appears firings and some jail time might help insure these practices are stopped.

As taxpayers shouldn't we be demanding accountability?

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