bits and pieces

Lots of odds and ends to clean up from our inbox. This happens occasionally as our level of frustration at the sheer political nature of the contracts overwhelms us.

Chinese co 1st to win Iraq contract

A major Chinese telecom firm has won an over $5 million contract in post-war Iraq, despite facing "some resistance" from the US-led provincial authority, the state media reported on Tuesday.

After some six months of difficult negotiations, Zhongxing Telecom Co has recently signed a contract with Iraqi Ministry of Communication to supply telecommunications equipment to Iraq, Xinhua news agency reported.

For the privelege of being bombed, Iraqis might have to eat the rice Americans choose. Some Congressional members want Iraq rice market restricted to coalition members

Congressional members from rice-producing states are urging the Bush administration to restrict rice contracts for Iraq to nations supportive of the U.S.-led war and rebuilding.

More than 20 members of Congress have signed a letter to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, saying that policy on providing food to Iraq should follow the same guidelines as the Coalition Provisional Authority policy limiting reconstruction contracts to firms from nations "that have sacrificed and invested in the coalition effort to free Iraq."

The letter notes that in the 1980s, the U.S. exported up to 500,000 tons of rice a year to Iraq, but sanctions imposed in 1991 cut U.S. suppliers off from that market. The move allowed Vietnam, a nation not participating in the coalition, to become Iraq's major supplier along with Thailand.

Contract award up at Defense Link:

Al-Hashimite Co., Baghdad, Iraq, was awarded on Feb. 18, 2004, a $10,332,000 firm-fixed-price contract for 25,200 Level III body armor vests and ceramic plate sets for the Iraq Civil Defense Corps.  Work will be performed in the United Kingdom and is expected to be completed by June 25, 2004.  Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.  There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on Nov. 28, 2003, and 59 bids were received.  The Coalition Provisional Authority Contracting Activity, Baghdad, Iraq, is the contracting activity (W914NS-04-C-0100)

Play catch up with Erinys, charged with training "14,500 guards to watch over 263 oil facilities and 7,000 miles of pipeline." But remember, they are not from South Africa --who is not a member of the Coalition of the Willing. Erinys is a British firm now. British Firm Lays Groundwork for Iraqi Oil Security