WRITTEN QUESTION E-1693/03 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Underhand method of awarding contracts for reconstruction and management in Iraq to US firms by the US Army.
Date: 2003-05-21
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Iraq, United States, award of contract, business ethics, common commercial policy, contract, economic reconstruction, oil industry, political morality

C 88 E/40

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.4.2004

The Commission considers that support to former child soldiers is one of many important post-conflict
challenges that needs to be addressed. The government, with the support of the international community,
must be more active in this matter, although some efforts are being made. Thus, in early March 2003 the
Angolan Government, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) and civil
society partners re-affirmed their policy framework for assisting former child soldiers and separated
children at a round table on the challenges of ‘Child Rights Protection in the Process of Re-Integration’,
organised by the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reinsertion.

Furthermore, one of the objectives of the Angolan Demobilisation and Re-Integration Programme (ADRP)
is indeed to provide tailored assistance to special target groups such as child ex combatants and disabled
ex-combatants. Approximately USD 31 million are foreseen for the support of these special target groups.
The Commission participates in the ADRP through its contribution of EUR 20 million to the Multi-Donor
Trust Fund within the framework of
the Multi-country Demobilisation and Re-Integration Program
(MDRP). The Commission is currently examining a further direct contribution to the ADRP.

On the whole the situation with regard to demobilisation, family re-unification and population settlement
is progressing, albeit with some difficulties. Considerable and sustained effort by the government,
supported by the international community is, however, necessary, to bring this process to a successful
conclusion, which still seems to be quite some time away.

(2004/C 88 E/0043)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1693/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(21 May 2003)

Subject: Underhand method of awarding contracts for reconstruction and management in Iraq to US firms

by the US Army

1.
Is the Commission concerned about the serious implications of the way in which major contracts to
prepare for the reconstruction of Iraq and for the restructuring of Iraq’s economy are being awarded to
American companies by the US Army through the US Army Corps of Engineers or USAid?

2.
Has the Commission noticed that these contracts are being awarded in unusual way, i.e. without
parliamentary scrutiny of the criteria and procedures, without any involvement of the US State Department
and without any possibility of non-American firms submitting tenders, while companies that supported the
US President’s election campaign and whose management is of the same political persuasion appear to
have been put at a strong advantage?

3.
Does the Commission know whether or not the contract for putting out fires in oil wells concluded
with KBR, a subsidiary of the US company Halliburton, whose chief executive officer until 2000 was the
current US Vice-President, also contains a clause saying that the company has the right to run the
infrastructure and distribution of products, which means that it can manage the oil wells and trade the oil?
Until when does this contract run and is it expected to be extended?

Is the United States demanding co-funding from Europe in exchange for the involvement of
4.
European firms? If, exceptionally, the US Army is involving firms from EU Member States, is a distinction
being made between firms from countries that supported US intervention in Iraq and firms from countries
that took the view that the UN Security Council alone could decide on any intervention?

5. What action has the Commission taken so far to secure an equivalent role for non-US firms in the
reconstruction and modernisation of Iraq?

Source: Vrij Nederland newspaper, 3 May 2003 and Metro newspaper, 8 May 2003.