Hundreds of Iraq reconstruction projects abandoned

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Hundreds of contracts to rebuild Iraq have been abandoned short of completion for reasons that range from poor performance to the killing of the contractor, a US audit said Monday.

The audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said at least 855 contracts have been terminated for default or convenience as of March 20.

The statistics understate how many contracts actually have been abandoned because they not all US government agencies report the information to a centralized database, the report said.

Most of the contracts on record -- 743 -- were terminated by the government because it was no longer considered to be in the US interest to continue.

In one case cited by the report, a contract for construction of a police station was terminated because "the building was blown up prior to completion."

In another, a contract to build power lines was ended when the Iraqi contractor was killed, it said.

Another 112 contracts were terminated for "default," the failure of the contractor to perform the work whether it be building roads or schools or prisons, the report said.
AFP