Iraq fails to take over U.S. projects

[Mark O'Neill]

Troops Confront Waste in Iraq Reconstruction - Washington Post, 25 Aug.

I am with the Iraqi principal on this one. The simple fact is that if Engineer project manager fails to do his job and leaves the 'user' to supervise the task that a trained engineer project manager should be doing, then failure on project delivery should be no surprise. (Unless you are truly as thick as a brick).

I cannot imagine the USACE handing over supervison of any domestic captial project to a school principal, I am mystified that anyone would do it on ops.
I am also amazed at the obvious lack of diligence in the commitment and supervision of Govt funds. For an organisation that stencils 'for official use only' on everything at home it really seems to be a case of 'penny wise and dollar foolish'.

[Tom Odom]

I am with the Iraqi principal on this one. The simple fact is that if Engineer project manager fails to do his job and leaves the 'user' to supervise the task that a trained engineer project manager should be doing, then failure on project delivery should be no surprise. (Unless you are truly as thick as a brick).

I cannot imagine the USACE handing over supervison of any domestic captial project to a school principal, I am mystified that anyone would do it on ops.
I am also amazed at the obvious lack of diligence in the commitment and supervision of Govt funds. For an organisation that stencils 'for official use only' on everything at home it really seems to be a case of 'penny wise and dollar foolish'.

Oh Mark,

Give me a few years and I could recall any number of similar idiocies I have seen all over Africa and the Middle East. Having been married to an AID officer for much of my time as a FAO, I got to see this stuff up close.

Talk to Stan; he has his own portfolio of assistance war stories.

The reality that drives such decision is the imperative to spend money, rapidly, and make it look good, allowng for a quick exit stage left. Rationale thought is not necessarily part of that process.

There was a movie in the 1980's with the title Inc., Incorporated. As I recall Eddie Albert was CEO and Judge Reinhold was a young executive. He was briefing the CEO on the lastet fighter the company was selling to a fictional African country. When asked why, Reinhold said, Country A wants Fighter Model A to keep up with Country B which is buying Fighter Model B (which Inc.Incorporated also made)." Anyway the CEO asked, "do they actually fly these aircraft?" "No," answered Reinhold, "They push them down hill from opposite sides of the valley which separates the two countries. The one that still rolls afterward wins. We win with more sales."

I found that comedy to be a perfect metaphor for our assistance to Zaire in competition with Congo-Brazza. I think Stan would agree.

Best

Tom

PS

then there was the time, USAID Cairo was forced to import slightly used Wisconsin dairy cattle to Egypt....

[Mark O'Neill]

Tom,

I note your (considerable) experience in these matters and accept the point you are making. From time to time I would remark (along with my mate the US DA) that similar things used to happen in Moz whereby very earnest 'donors' would push their particular national 'product/s'.

The point that I guess I was making was with regard to the arrant hypocrisy evident in such cases where the 'western' military guys (or media) then hook into the 'natives' for their 'ineptitude' in the face of such 'generosity'.

Cheers

Mark

PS - would love to hear in another forum one day the story of the Wisconsin cattle , I can imagine..

[Beelzebubalicious]

I'm also curious and a bit worried about what "slightly used cattle" are...

[Tom Odom]

I'm also curious and a bit worried about what "slightly used cattle" are...

Simple story really.

Before he became Sec Def, then Senator Les Aspin was always a severe critic of US assistance programs, unless of course they benefited his state. In the late 80s Wisconsin dairy industry had excess stock so some bright individual in the former senator's office came up with the idea to "donate" such cattle to Egypt. The mechanism used was a 100% tax write off for the donors and a 100% offset out of the Egyptian aid package that year. In essence, the Egyptians got to buy these used cows. The real kicker was of course that the life of a Wisconsin dairy cow--air condtioned barns, sterile conditions, etc did not prepare them for life in Egypt. As I recall we are talking about 100 cows, "valued" by the donors at $100K per cow for a $10 million package. They were all dead within 18 months.

Another Guiness moment. Brilliant!

Tom