Word: bechtel
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Work in Iraq is parceled out among a handful of companies, but Halliburton has by far the largest share--$17 billion from the U.S. and British governments, several times as much as its closest competitor, Bechtel. Halliburton and the other large contractors work on a cost-plus basis--the cost of its work (negotiated in advance) plus a defined profit of up to 3%. The entire 2004 budget for the Coalition Provisional Authority is $13 billion and pays for about 2,300 much smaller reconstruction projects, separate from Halliburton's, none of which are subject to competitive bidding rules. Halliburton...
...talked with moderate politicians, businesspeople and military officials. Most found Bush's moral talk either duplicitous or fatuous. "Liberate Iraq? Rubbish," said a prominent Jordanian businessman. "You occupy Iraq for the strategic and economic benefits. You are building the largest embassy in the world in Baghdad. Halliburton and Bechtel are running everything, at enormous profits. And then I watch Bush on Al-Arabiya and all I see is his sense of moral superiority. He brings democracy and freedom to the barbarians. But who are the barbarians? Even before the Abu Ghraib pictures, we saw male soldiers searching Iraqi women...
...talked with moderate politicians, businesspeople and military officials. Most found Bush's moral talk either duplicitous or fatuous. "Liberate Iraq? Rubbish," said a prominent Jordanian businessman. "You occupy Iraq for the strategic and economic benefits. You are building the largest embassy in the world in Baghdad. Halliburton and Bechtel are running everything, at enormous profits. And then I watch Bush on Al-Arabiya and all I see is his sense of moral superiority. He brings democracy and freedom to the barbarians. But who are the barbarians? Even before the Abu Ghraib pictures, we saw male soldiers searching Iraqi women...
...Skanska of Sweden - unveiled a set of principles aimed at eliminating bribery, contending that businesses themselves are hurt by rampant payoffs because they distort competition. "There is significant corruption in the industry," Alan Boeckmann, chief executive of U.S. construction giant Fluor, tells TIME. Some big players, including Bechtel and Halliburton - which last week fired two employees for allegedly taking $6 million in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor - declined to participate, but with an accord now in place there is growing pressure to sign up. Will the pledge be enforced? We'll see. "We all know this is just a first...
...Prime contractors can choose whomever they would like to do the real work in Iraq and have already done so. The giant U.S. construction firm Bechtel, for example, has about 150 subcontractors in Iraq, including companies from Germany and other nations that opposed the war. It's easy to understand why. Much of Iraq's ravaged infrastructure, which has been short of spare parts for more than a decade, was built by German, French or Russian firms. A prime contractor trying to repair power grids and oil-pumping stations would be doing a poor job if it didn't turn...