IG says weak planning puts Afghan projects at risk

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IG says weak planning puts Afghan projects at risk
BY MARISA TAYLOR
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON | The government watchdog of U.S. contracting in Afghanistan is scrutinizing a $266 million no-bid contract that was awarded to Black & Veatch.

In November the U.S. Agency for International Development awarded the contract to Black & Veatch despite complaints about the company’s handling of a power plant in Kabul.

The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction said Monday, at a hearing before the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, that he was now looking into the agreement.

The new contract includes work on a different power plant and the refurbishing of the Kajaki Dam, important to an effort to revive the economy in southern Afghanistan’s Taliban strongholds.

The USAID exempted Black & Veatch, based in Overland Park, from competing for the work, saying such a process would delay the projects.