U.N. calls on U.S. to settle dispute over no-bid Iraq contract (KBR)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/printer_1072205.php

U.N. calls on U.S. to settle dispute over no-bid Iraq contract


New York - The U.N. Thursday called on the United States to resolve a dispute with Iraq over a 1.4-billion-dollar no-bid contract awarded to a U.S. construction firm in Iraq.

The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which ruled war-embattled Iraq from June, 2003 until an interim Baghdad government was set up in June, 2004, awarded the contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR). The contract was financed through Iraqi oil revenue.

Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, chairman of a U.N. panel that monitors the Development Fund for Iraq, said Washington should seek a resolution to the problem because an audit showed that the 1.4 billion dollars were awarded non-competitively and CPA did not provide documents to justify the award to KBR.

Halbwachs also voiced serious concerns about CPA\'s lack of control over Iraqi oil revenue in the period after U.S. troops toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein, the use of unaccounted bartered transactions, weak controls in Iraq\'s spending ministries, and the use of non-competitive bidding for some contracts.