Few construction projects in Iraq today symbolize the financial waste and lack of accountability quite like the new U.S. Embassy under construction in Baghdad. At $592 million, it will be the most expensive U.S. diplomatic facility ever built. The 104-acre, 21-structure campus will be a self-contained town for its 300 employees and their families with schools, water treatment facilities and power generation. It will also be perhaps the best defended U.S. Embassy in the world, with plans for extensive walls and a sizable military guard post. But like so many of the ambitious construction projects in Iraq, it has been plagued with problems from almost the start.

While it was no secret that the United States was planning to build a new, oversized embassy in Baghdad, few details were known until this past May. That was when an intrepid internet blogger first noticed that plans for the embassy were posted on the company website of Kansas City, Mo.-based architect Berger Devine Yaeger, which had been contracted to design the embassy. Renderings of the facility, showing buildings that many said looked like a cross between a suburban middle school and a spa resort club shrouded in concrete walls and concertina wire, were circulated online. Complaints about the embassy's domineering fortress architecture and considerable expense were a hot topic for about a week, and the website of Berger Devine Yaeger was taken down without notice. But construction of the embassy continues, and the lead contractor, First Kuwaiti International Trading, says the project will be finished by September on time and under budget.

But aside from architectural criticisms, there was not enough publicly known about the project's progress to comment further. That is until last week. The embassy's $22 million guard house opened this past May, after a four-month delay. This was met with little fanfare, however, as the facility was overcome with problems from the moment it opened. According to a cable sent by the embassy staff to the State Department, obtained by the Washington Post, when kitchen staff attempted to cook an inaugural meal they encountered faulty wiring that caused unusable appliances, a noticeable burning smell and gave staff members electric shocks. Later investigation found leaking fuel tanks that were improperly patched, and temporary sleeping trailers which had to be abandoned due to overpowering formaldehyde fumes.

Now for anyone following Iraq construction projects, horror stories of this sort are nothing new. But this particular case highlights the issue of accountability in Iraq construction. The faults in the guardhouse were uncovered by employees of KBR, and a State Department official looking to contain the situation accused KBR of making false claims to deflect criticism from the contractor's own poor performance in Iraq. Note how the first concern is secrecy, and addressing the real problems is put behind image manipulation and damage control.

Despite years of failed policy, there are still forces at work in Iraq who believe the situation can be solved by controlling public perception of the effort and throwing money at any problems that arise. The atmosphere of construction in Iraq is poisonous for whistleblowers. Things can't get built properly unless there is accountability and transparency. This is even more true when working in a war zone, where chances for exploitation and illicit profit are near infinite.

These are not the first complaints about First Kuwaiti's performance on the embassy project. Last month NBC News reported that the Defense Department was investigating accusations that the company was bringing foreign workers into Iraq under false pretenses, and denied them exit when they realized what had happened. Filipino workers, boarding a plane in Kuwait thinking they were headed to construction jobs in Dubai, began to panic and in some cases had to be restrained once they realized where their flight was headed. The plight of the workers was brought to light by Rory Mayberry, a medic working by contract for First Kuwaiti. He claims the workers on his flight had no idea they were going to Baghdad, and even Mayberry's boarding pass read "Dubai." Upon arrival, a State Department employee told him "that's how they do it." Mayberry also cited poor medical facilities for the workers in Iraq. First Kuwaiti Co-founder Walid al-Absi called the accusations "bull****" and "nonsense." A State Department investigation found no wrongdoing, but the Defense Department is performing its own investigation.

With no real system in place to honestly monitor and assess the quality and legality of work done by foreign contractors in Iraq, companies can cut every corner imaginable knowing they will get paid either way. The embassy project is a boondoggle, more than half a billion dollars spent on an imposing fortress that will only breed suspicion among the Iraqi people and serve as a target for attacks. And with no serious oversight or accountability, there is little motivation for First Kuwaiti to deliver a fully-functional facility. If they do make that September deadline, expect reports from disgruntled diplomats coping with a half-finished, barely-usable embassy, followed by their superiors chiding them for letting the truth get out.

July 23, 2007

Patrick is right in stating that Kuwaitis are used to treat labors like animals. Amnesty International are at their back but to no avail. The country is having poorest record of worst human respect. Astonishingly this is reflected in treatment and services by expatriate to Kuwaitis.

Kip Cartier

July 13, 2007

Jeff Rubenstone's comments about First Kuwaiti's abuse of foreign labor should not be a surprise. Kuwait's wealthy (and probably most of the wealthier countries around the Persian Gulf) have imported labor, including domestics, for quite a while. These laborers were abandoned in Kuwait by their employers, who had collected the passports, when Iraq invaded in 1990. Our Army base in Doha, Kuwait, after the Gulf War was the new employer for quite a few Filipinos. I remember reading in the Kuwait newspaper complaints that wealthy women with infants had to get up during the night to feed their babies because they couldn't find willing replacements for the domestics they had abandoned when they fled south.

Patrick Poor
Skanska USA