Bush rapped over Iraq rebuild

THE Bush Administration is wasting billions of dollars on overpriced Iraqi reconstruction contracts that favour politically well-connected companies, a leading Democrat claims.

Henry Waxman said there was evidence of 'waste and gold-plating', enriching oil-services giant Halliburton and San Francisco-based construction group Bechtel.

He said: 'Too much money appears to be going to Halliburton and Bechtel while costing the US taxpayer millions and imperilling the goal of Iraqi reconstruction.'

Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's old company, has, through its subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, secured a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure.

Bechtel, with strong political ties, won the lead contract from US Agency for International Development to oversee Iraqi reconstruction work.

Waxman said that between them the two companies had landed contracts worth $3.14bn (£1.9bn).

He cited Iraqi administrators as saying non-Iraqi contractors had charged $25m to refurbish 20 Basra police stations. He claimed that would have been 'enough to restore every government building' in the city.