Troops Confront Waste In Iraq Reconstruction

The Iraqi contractor was charging $50 per basketball and $30 per soccer ball. In Baghdad, top-of-the-line basketballs and soccer balls cost no more than $15.

Johnson's eyes went down the contract. Was hooking up a power cable to the city's power supply really going to cost $10,000? "I'm an ex-infantry guy. I don't know what this runs," Johnson said. "Maybe a cable like that costs a lot, but I really doubt it."

"If they are doing this to little stuff like basketballs, then how do I know they aren't cheating us on the big stuff, like the stuff I'm not qualified to assess?" he said.

Work Unfinished

The contract to refurbish several buildings of the vocational school was signed in September. It called for renovations to be completed in 60 days. In February, shortly after Whiteside's battalion took over responsibility for projects in the Iskandariyah area, he visited the complex. The project was supposed to be 40 percent complete, and the contractor had been paid for that portion. But it was not done.

The contractor assured them he would finish, Whiteside said.

On Feb. 25, the contractor and the school's director came to the base. They wanted an additional $400,000 to upgrade the project. The civil affairs team leader, Maj. James Ortoli, refused. In his report, he warned of the contractor and director: "I think they are both trying to scam money from Coalition Forces and should not be used in future projects. I told them that the work I saw when I visited the school was not to standard and I wouldn't entertain the thought of spending more money for their mistakes."

He recommended canceling the project if there was no improvement. Several weeks later, Whiteside revisited the site and said he felt progress was being made.

In April, Jackson visited the site. The project was supposed to be halfway done, but the site was still chaotic.

"I don't know what constituted them as halfway through," Jackson said. "It was also our first project we really dealt with. We didn't have a whole lot to go off of, especially as far as experience goes. This kind of stuff, it was all new to all of us."

By then, Sgt. Michael Cawley, a New England police officer, had taken over as team leader on the project. He was responsible for paying the remaining 50 percent. Satisfied with the work, on June 17 he made the final payment to the contractor.

On July 27, in the auditorium, Whiteside was angrily demanding an explanation from the school's director, Naseer al-Abbas. He wanted to know why the contractor had failed. "What was this guy doing? Why didn't he take the initiative?"

Abbas said, through an interpreter, that they had confronted the contractor numerous times but that he ignored them. He said Whiteside's soldiers should have done a better job in monitoring the school's progress, adding that the constant changeover of soldiers he dealt with didn't help matters.