WP: Missteps Led to Canceled Iraq Contract

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48177-2004Mar10.html

Vague contract language, missing paperwork, staff turnover and general instability on the ground led to such flaws in a $327 million contract to outfit the new Iraqi Army that the work had to be canceled and rebid, according to a senior U.S. Army official involved in the contracting.

U.S. contracting officers working for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad were imprecise in describing the work needed when they sought bids and they did not follow their own procedures for ranking offers, the Army official said.

The hostile setting and a Baghdad staff too small to do the job help explain the failures but there is "no excuse for doing this with a contract of this magnitude," said the Army official, who would speak only on background about the problems his office has uncovered.

The cancellation of what had been the largest non-construction contract yet awarded in the Iraqi rebuilding effort comes as the House Government Reform Committee is set to hold hearings today on contract coordination and management in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Defense Department announced yesterday that it had awarded seven contracts to support the Program Management Office in Baghdad, the entity that will oversee the spending of the $18.6 billion in supplemental reconstruction funding that Congress authorized last fall.

[yardwork]

1. The neocoms are evil AND incompetent

[jburton]

2. They can't help it

They only have experince in cronyism and backroom/golf course deals.

They have no clue how to write an objective prospectus.