The US government has awarded a contract worth $62 million to a Washington-based education firm to improve primary and secondary education in postwar Iraq. The contract is the latest to be given exclusively to American firms solicited by the Bush administration for reconstruction work in Iraq, from rebuilding roads, bridges and waterways to fighting oil fires.
The education contract was awarded to Creative Associates International, a change management firm, by the US Agency for International Development. Its goal will be the rapid distribution of school materials, equipment, and supplies in Iraq and reform of the Iraqi education system, the company said.
The US agency has already awarded a $4.8 million contract to Stevedoring Services of America to manage and repair seaports such as Umm Qasr, and $7.9 million to the research Triangle Institute in North Carolina to help restore local government. Fortune magazine reports that Halliburton, the Texas oil-service company that US Vice-president Mr Dick Cheney once ran, stands to make millions rebuilding Iraq. The biggest job in the reconstruction of postwar Iraq, which it is estimated will cost up to $100 billion, will be rebuilding the oil industry.
Halliburton's engineering and construction division, Kellogg Brown & Root, already provides the meal service, laundry, and rubbish collection for US military camps in Kuwait and Iraq.
Mr Cheney severed his relationship with Halliburton to become Vice-president, but will receive deferred payments from the company until 2005.