Finally the greedy Yanks have agreed to share the spoils more fairly. Great news for the British economy as now 25 of the contracts have been put up for grabs. Whether they will be awarded them will depend on some hard public lobbying but it’s a start.
£11bn Iraq work open to British firms](Latest news & breaking headlines | The Times and The Sunday Times)
BRITISH companies will be able to bid for 25 giant reconstruction contracts in Iraq valued at $18.7 billion (£11 billion), the Pentagon confirmed yesterday.
American officials promised an open and fair competition to firms from the United States, Iraq and any other country that contributed to the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
More than 1,000 potential bidders crammed into a conference in Washington, sponsored by the Pentagon, to hear the new terms. A similar conference is being held in London tomorrow.
The public works contracts will range from repairing electrical grids to building police stations and water treatment plants. The projects, numbering more than 2,000, will be paid for by the US taxpayer after Congress approved most of President Bush’s $20 billion reconstruction request for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under a fast-track schedule, tenders will be announced on December 5 and the awards for the new contracts will follow on February 3.
The announcement — forecast in The Times on Saturday — marks an about-turn by the US Administration, which restricted the first round of lucrative contracts in Iraq to American firms. President Bush was criticised, especially after some of the primary contracts were handed to firms with links to the White House, such as Halliburton and Bechtel.
Tony Blair also received flak for appearing to win no concessions for British firms from Mr Bush, despite his loyalty.
Retired Admiral David Nash, head of the Baghdad-based Programme Management Office, promised a fair competition. “We will have maximum transparency from the beginning,” he said.
Britain and the United States also plan to return to the United Nations to seek a new Security Council resolution endorsing their latest plan to transfer power to a provisional Iraqi government. Diplomats say that the resolution, which could be adopted next week, will be the first of a “rolling series of welcomes” at key moments as the new timetable unfolds over the next two years.
The coalition powers will table the resolution once the Iraqi Governing Council formally presents the UN with its new schedule for the handover of power, which calls for the creation of a transitional government by June 30 and the eventual election of a government, under a new constitution, by the end of 2005.
The planned resolution will be the third Security Council resolution on the postwar political set-up in Iraq since the war. But it is likely to be the least controversial because the leading critics of the war, such as France, Germany and Russia, have been pushing the coalition for a faster transfer of power to the Iraqis.
British and US officials say that the new resolution will commit the Security Council to the new Iraqi government, easing the way for international recognition. It will also increase pressure on Kofi Annan, the UN SecretaryGeneral, to order the return of UN staff to Iraq. Diplomats discount the possibility that the vote will unlock much additional financial or military aid.