US embassy to 'localise' Iraq operations
The United States embassy in Iraq is to increase its reliance on local goods and services as part of efforts to cut the size of its mission, the largest in the world, a top State Department official said on Wednesday.
Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Thomas Nides told reporters during a visit to Baghdad that as part of such efforts, "we'll look at the contract piece," specifically "purchasing more local goods and services." "We're basically telling our contractors we expect them to source more of the food internally than bringing it over the border, and so that will obviously lessen our dependence on some of the contracts," Nides said.
"We have a very much aggressive hire ... Iraqi programme, meaning that we're being very clear not only to our contractors but even here for our staff to begin to localise much of our operations," he said.
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"It will always be a very large embassy. Now the question is, can you fine-tune it, can you shrink it," Nides said. He noted that the budget request for 2013, at some $4.8 billion, is down about 10 percent.
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