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Business
& Labor
U.S. Agency Seeks Bids for Rebuilding Iraq
(enr.construction.com - 3/10/03)
By Sherie
Winston, with Mary B. Powers and Tom Ichniowski
The DOD first assigned about 500 media
representatives to join sThe U.S. Agency for International
Development says that that it has asked a select group of
U.S. engineering firms to bid on a contract that could be
worth $900 million to rebuild a postwar Iraq.
The firms were sent a request for proposals
about three weeks ago, says a USAID official. Special procurement
laws allow for the select bidding, and also prohibit the government
from discussing details, including which firms were asked
to respond, the agency official says.
But the official says that all the firms
that were asked to send proposals "have the unique capability
to work under these urgent circumstances." President
Bush has said that humanitarian relief, including rebuilding,
should begin as soon as hostilities, if any, are over.
USAID declined to say when the main
contract would be awarded. "That is unpredictable because
there are a lot of moving parts" the official says, referring
to the uncertainty over whether or when a war would begin.
Agency officials also are preparing RFPs for secondary contracts,
but the official did not know when firms would be contacted
to bid on them. The Bush administration wants "to move
quickly but specific dates have not be designated," the
official adds.
News of the RFP was first reported in
the Wall Street Journal.
Bechtel Corp., San Francisco, and Washington
Group International Inc., Boise, say that they are responding
or have responded to the RFP. Other large U.S. engineering
firms contacted by ENR did not respond by enr.com's deadline
on March 10.
Jack Herrmann, Washington Group vice
president for corporate communications, says they company
is talking to federal agencies in two areas, rebuilding Iraq
and also destroying chemical, biological and nuclear weapons
in that country.
But Bechtel spokesman Jonathan Marshall
declined comment on details, including the scope of work U.S.
AID outlined.
Marshall also notes that "this
is somewhat speculative in the sense that we are not...at
war with Iraq. The President says he hopes to avoid war, but
if this kind of work is required, we have the skills necessary
to do it."
Bechtel last had workers on the job
in Iraq in the summer of 1990. Some of its personnel at that
time were held in Iraq under arrest.
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