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December 20, 2007
Department Head of US Embassy Project in Iraq Resigns
The person in charge of building US embassies around the world, including the controversial and beleaguered $740-million new embassy in Iraq, has tendered his resignation effective December 31.
Despite his assurances last summer that the sprawling 104-acre Baghdad embassy complex would open on schedule and on budget in September, the project is likely to be extended well into next year. (The original completion date was intended to be June 2007.)
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Charles Williams, head of the State Department's Overseas Building Operations is the third high-level State Department official to step down amid serious problems related to the U.S. State Department's Iraq mission. Earlier this month, the department’s inspector general also announced his resignation after being barraged with allegations that he covered up and ignored complaints related to the Iraq embassy and other matters. The head of diplomatic security resigned in October following growing concern over the private security firm, Blackwater.
Ongoing criminal investigations of the Iraq embassy project by the US Justice Department and Congress continue to focus on allegations of contract rigging, shoddy work and labor trafficking. The embassy contractor is Lebanese-owned, Kuwait-based First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting.
First Kuwaiti has been accused of tricking foreign laborers into working on the embassy, mistreating them and paying $200,000 in kickbacks in return for two unrelated Army contracts in Iraq. The company denies the charges.Two other key subjects of the investigations: James Golden, an independent contractor who continues to head the State Department's Emergency Project Coordinating Office and Mary French, Senior Project Director for the new Iraq embassy.
Project creep: The Baghdad embassy originally was to cost $592 million. But the State Department informed Congress this year that design changes and new requirements would cost an additional $144 million. Some believe those revisions will be used to repair and cover up poor work already completed. Interestingly, when the Bush administration first proposed the project, Congress rejected the suggested billion-dollar-plus price tag and trimmed the appropriations request back to $600 million. That cost seems to be creeping back upward through the backdoor.
Posted by davidphinney at December 20, 2007 10:37 AM
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