Contractors Get Hammered Over Flawed Projects in Iraq
At a Sept. 28 hearing before the House Committee on Government Reform, lawmakers grilled the Parsons Corp. and Special Inspector General for Iraq Construction Stuart Bowen to find out why and how the construction of a high-profile police training academy, as well as other projects in Iraq, went horribly awry. Bowen's office released a report Sept. 27 that detailed "construction deficiencies" that were so extreme that they posed a potential health hazard to future students at the college. According to the report, the plumbing system was so poorly installed that it caused feces and urine to leak from the ceilings onto the floors and walls of the student barracks.
"This debacle is not just a waste of taxpayer funds, and it just doesn't impact the reconstruction. It impedes the entire effort in Iraq," said ranking Minority Member Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, Parsons Delaware, Inc., Pasadena, Calif., held the approximately $73-million contract to design, renovate and build the academy and hired Iraqi subcontractors to perform most of the work. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers terminated Parsons' contract May 31 after receiving complaints about poor conditions of the student barracks shortly after Iraqi police recruits arrived earlier in May. In his testimony, Bowen said a recent visit to the site was "extremely disappointing" and faulted both an Iraqi subcontractor's poor workmanship as well as Parsons' lack of oversight as the root of the problem. "Parsons had a duty to supervise how this Iraqi firm was doing," Bowen said.