There has been new evidence now for what many have been claiming since the war in iraq started- that contracts for the reconstruction have been given without any kind of proper competitive process. This article describes the allegations against Halliburton subsidiary KBR.

key quote: “I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to (Halliburton subsidiary) KBR (Kellogg Brown & Root) represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career,” said Bunnatine “Bunny” Greenhouse, a U.S. Corps of Engineers’ senior procurement official veteran with 20 years’ experience.”

In a sense, I can understand an administration tackling the complexities of Iraq wanting to work with an organization it already knows and has experience with. But aside from the fact that I don’t know if this is the case, this kind of a closed-door move is obviously long term destructive. I’m glad Bunny came out swinging, but I wonder if she is covered by the American interpretation of Whistleblower. Here is a research document from the Government of Canada site in which three models of Whistle blower protection are compared.

There is legislation regarding the protection of whistleblowers, but the process of following up on a whistleblower’s accusations seems less formalized. Blowing a big public whistle has great drama, but the long process of sorting out what needs to be done to right the wrongs is less straightforwardly compelling. Will we see the procurement office brought to task for this? Will the wrongness of it have the kind of rolling implications on the future actions of the wrong-doers that it should? Will Iraq, not to mention the US get competition and development undistorted by power such that they deserve? Or will they get America’s wealthiest systems thrust upon them no matter how ineffectual, uncaring, or out of context they are?

This, of course, is the same old problem with the rhetoric of “Free trade.” Free usually ends up meaning, free to be taken advantage of by those who can. I’m not necessarily against free trade. I think government tariffs are equally distorting. I’m for distributed public analysis and control.

Check out July’s Harper’s for a scary article on “pork-barreling” and how many friends of friends with money get funded..oh and for my little letter to the editor about distortions in trade and the need to register public opinion.