The Monitor offers the following snapshot of various embassy gardening costs while acknowledging, to some degree, the need for nations to impress a desired image upon friends and foes alike around the globe.
A sampling of U.S. Embassy landscaping/gardening contracts awarded, listed by location and cost. All amounts are in U.S. dollars:
Chambesy, Switzerland
One year contract awarded to BEP S.A : $175,000 (a total that will jump to about $893,000 if all four option-years are exercised).
Kingston, Jamaica
One-year contract awarded to Manpower and Maintenance Services Ltd.: $105,000 (though it should be noted that when the State Dept. initially issued a Request for Proposals, it offered an estimated annual cost of $150,00-$300,000. Oh well, as one ex-State Dept. staffer told me, the running joke at State is "It's not real money, after all. It's taxpayer money!").
Frankfurt, Germany
One year contract awarded to Johannes Winkler: $173,000.
Baghdad, Iraq
As the Monitor's predecessor site The Peacock Report reported several years ago, the State Dept. tentatively had slated $1 million just to get the new embassy's shrubbery up to snuff, just a fraction, though, of the $177 million contract it awarded to PAE Government Services, Inc., to build and maintain the compound. Many thanks to the Centre for Research on Globalization for re-distributing that article.
Comments