Study links US reconstruction deals in Iraq, Afghanistan to Bush backers
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Firms doing US government-funded business in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) donated more to President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s 2000 election campaign than they gave any other politician in the past 12 years, said a new study.
Researchers at Washington-based watchdog group the Center for Public Integrity said US contractors with multibillion-dollar contracts to rebuild the war-torn countries also enjoyed influential military and political connections.
The report did not accuse the firms or US agencies of corruption.
It detailed more than 500,000 dollars in donations to Bush's 2000 campaign coffer from 70-plus US firms and individual contractors now active in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The same donors have garnered up to eight billion dollars in reconstruction business, the report said.
Many deals were not put out to tender as contract-issuing agencies -- chiefly, the Pentagon (news - web sites), State Department and US Agency for International Development -- said needs were too urgent to allow for time-consuming competitive bids.
Contract recipients were well-connected.
"Nearly every one of the 10 largest contracts awarded for Iraq and Afghanistan went to companies employing former high-ranking government officials or individuals with close ties to those agencies or Congress," the study said.
"Dozens of lower-profile, but well-connected, companies shared in the reconstruction bounty," it added.
Halliburton Co. -- the oil services titan once headed by now Vice President Richard Cheney -- scooped up the biggest contract: 2.3 billion dollars for its Kellogg, Brown and Root unit to support the US military and rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure, the report said.
Halliburton chairman Dave Lesar, responding on Wednesday to lawmakers' allegations the company was overcharging for gasoline imported into Iraq, said criticism of its work there was "less about Halliburton and more about external political issues."
The company won the Iraq contract on the strength of a long track record, not its political connections, he added.
Bechtel Group Inc., the California-based construction giant, won a one-billion-dollar deal to restore Iraqi utilities, telecommunications and transport infrastructure, schools and hospitals.
George Schultz, who served as Secretary of State under then president Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) in the 1980s, sits on Bechtel's board of directors. Company chief executive Riley Bechtel serves on the President's Export Council, which advises Bush on trade issues.
Like Halliburton, Bechtel said its connections had nothing to do with winning contracts.
"We do engage in the political process, as do most companies in the United States," the company said on its Web site.
"We have legitimate policy interests and positions on matters before Congress, and we express them in many ways, including support for elected officials who support those positions."
"We do not expect or receive political favors or government contracts as a result of those contributions," it added.