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Friday, October 19, 2007
Private Firm Fails to Deliver Yet Again
Writing for McClatchy, Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay report on a criminal probe into mismanagement of the construction of the $600 million Baghdad Embassy.
A congressional committee is examining whether the walls of the still-unfinished embassy complex, which are supposed to be blast-resistant, performed as they should have during the mortar attack.
U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker banished [the State Department contractor in charge of the project, James L.]Golden from Iraq, but he continues to oversee the construction of the embassy in Baghdad; to be the liaison with the contractor, Kuwait-based First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co.; and to supervise other projects for the State Department's Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) bureau.
The embassy — actually a 104-acre, Vatican-size compound of 21 buildings meant to house and sleep about 1,000 U.S. officials was originally meant to open in June, then in September. Now, due to problems with the sprinkler system, the latest in a series of deficiencies blamed on First Kuwaiti, it remains unclear whether it will be ready for occupancy this year.
It's not that private firms can never do right, but that, contrary to conservative ideology, they are quite capable of colossal failure. The tragedy of the president's failure to recognize this simple, yet blindly obvious fact will result in millions of kids going without health insurance.
Posted by Craig Jennings
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