9/EPCO approved contractor invoices without adequate documentation and did not require First Kuwaiti to comply with the reporting requirements of the Cargo Preference Act.


[ATTENTION!!!!]

What makes this story all the more outrageous is that the Obama administration is moving forward with a plan to build a $736 million massive US embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan that is modeled after the Baghdad embassy.

8/EPCO did not adequately discharge its contract administration responsibilities. EPCO was managed by an individual who did not enforce contract provisions, most notably design and construction requirements, which resulted in many of the construction deficiencies listed. Of prime significance, construction deficiencies prevented the contracts from being completed on time, and Embassy personnel could not move as planned to the more secure facilities at the [embassy]. Even though First Kuwaiti did not meet the required contract completion dates for three contracts, covering housing, infrastructure, and support facilities, EPCO did not require First Kuwaiti to pay $10.9 million in liquidated damages. EPCO also approved $69.1 million in advance mobilization payments that were not authorized by the contracts and did not require First Kuwaiti to pay $3.3 million in interest for the use of those funds.

7/•Using nonstandard wiring in the embassys power distribution system. The audit charges that First Kuwaiti substituted a less reliable system. The audit also says the company should repay $11 million because of the additional operating costs resulting from the installation of a less efficient system it installed.
•Plumbing deficiencies at over 200 locations at the embassy.
•The embassys fire protection systems are not compliant with code, while fire protection water mains were improperly constructed.
The audit also found that First Kuwaiti had an inadequate quality control program, while some contracted tasks either were not performed or were performed incorrectly.

The audit also examines the conduct of the Emergency Project Coordination Office (EPCO), an ad hoc organization set up to coordinate the embassys construction. EPCO administered the First Kuwaiti contracts. According to the audit:

6/As a result of construction deficiencies, incomplete and undocumented design work, additional maintenance charges attributable to inadequate quality control and commissioning procedures, and unrecovered liquidated damages and interest on unauthorized advance mobilization payments, we recommend that the Department of State attempt to recover more than $132 million from First Kuwaiti.
Among the allegations against First Kuwaiti in the State Department audit are:

•The company failed to follow contract specifications when it constructed safe areas in the embassy, which are vital to protecting staff in emergency situations.
•Deficiencies at the embassys water treatment plant.

5/Mayberry says even he was given a boarding pass that was marked for Dubai, though he knew he was going to Baghdad.

The steward was having problems keeping guys in their seats because they were so upset, wanted to get off the airplane, says Mayberry. They were upset they werent headed to Dubai where they were promised they were working.

He says when he arrived in Baghdad he notified the State Department official in charge of the embassy project about what had happened on his flight and she replied thats the way they do it.

First Kuwaiti is now back in the spotlight as the State Department Inspector General on October 22 released an audit of the companys five Iraq embassy contracts worth some $470 million. The audit suggests that First Kuwaiti may be asked to repay more than $130 million—more than a quarter of the total project money paid to the company— to the US government. According to the audit:

4/FKIT has been plagued by allegations from whistleblowers who worked on the embassy that say the company brought workers, mostly South Asians and Filipinos, to Baghdad under false pretenses, then abused and threatened them while there. The company, predictably, denies those charges.

Rory Mayberry, who first worked with First Kuwaiti in March 200 as a medic on the embassy construction site, alleges that when he showed up at the Kuwait airport for his flight into Baghdad, there were 51 Filipino employees of First Kuwaiti also waiting for the same flight — except the Filipinos believed they were going to Dubai, reported NBC News. He says the Filipinos were told to proceed to GATE 26 at the Kuwait airport — but no Gate 26 existed. There was only a door to a staircase that led to a white plane on the tarmac:

3/The company that was contracted to build the embassy was First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting (FKTC). Its run by Mohammad I. H. Marafie, a member of one of the most powerful mercantile families in Kuwait, according to CorpWatch. FKTCs general manager and co-owner, Wadih al-Absi jets back and forth to the United States, dreaming of magazine covers celebrating his rise to a global player in large-scale engineering and construction FKTC is one of the many Middle East companies that collectively ship tens of thousands of cheap day laborers to Iraqs war zones where they are paid just dollars a day.

In 2006, David Phinney reported: Several other contractors that competed for the embassy contracts believe that a high-level decision at the State Department was made to favor a Kuwait-based firm in appreciation for Kuwaits support of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. It was political, said one contractor.

2/The Baghdad embassy—the largest of any nation on planet earth and ten times bigger than any other US embassy—is striking evidence indicating a continued US presence in the country for many years to come. The structure cost more than $700 million and is the size of 80 football fields. It is bigger than the Vatican, six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York and is about two thirds the size of the National Mall in Washington. It has space for 1,000 employees who are guarded by scores of paramilitary mercenary forces. In other words it is the perfect structure for a nation that claims to be leaving Iraq very soon.

The embassy is more like a fortress and hardly sends a message of warm diplomacy. What kind of embassy is it when everybody lives inside and its blast-proof, and people are running around with helmets and crouching behind sandbags? said Edward Peck, the former US ambassador to Iraq when the embassy was first being constructed.

Iraq Embassy Scandal Expands: Contractor May Have to Repay $130 Million - 23rd October

By Jeremy Scahill

The extent of the massive waste and abuse surrounding the construction of the monstrous US embassy in Baghdad continues to expand. The State Department has just released another audit of the embassys construction and suggests that the Kuwaiti contractor hired by the Bush administration to do most of the construction work may have to repay more than $130 million to US taxpayers as a result of construction deficiencies, incomplete and undocumented design work, inadequate quality control and interest on unauthorized payments.

First a bit of background:

I find it funny that whenever America is under scrutiny within hours it plays the role of the victim.
They really do know how to control the media.