Steve Peacock's U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor

Hurricane Sandy: Another Example of Why We Need to Invest More in America, Less Around the Globe (COMMENTARY)

I have an idea how we as a nation can better cope with the financial burden that nature has imposed upon us in this post-hurricane environment of devastation on the East Coast: Assess and then cancel various programs that U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Trade & Development Agency currently are carrying out or are planning to implement across the globe.

For the sake of full disclosure, I say this not only as a concerned taxpayer who continues to advocate streamlining (not the elimination) of foreign aid, but as a human being who lives one mile from the beach on the battered New Jersey coast -- someone who is doing significantly better than many of his Shore neighbors, but who is temporarily displaced nonetheless.

Before I continue, also keep in mind that this is less political -- insofar as partisan politics -- than it appears. Yes, the Obama Administration currently is executing the following initiatives. But as I've said before, it's a power thing, not an Obama thing. Such endeavors took place under Clinton and Bush, and in various forms will continue under future presidents.

Here we go:

Cancel the planned development of Ph.D. and masters degree programs for which USAID intends to fund in a Ugandan university. Use that money in schools across New Jersey, New York, or Connecticut. 

Cancel the nearly $1 billion in construction projects that USAID has planned for the Palestinians.  Use it to rebuild homes, businesses, and infrastucture destroyed during the hurricane. OUR hurricane.

Those business start-up projects in The Philippines? Cancel them. Most of the businesses in my area are closed, hopefully just temporarily. many, presumbaly, will go under. Tell the Filipinos they have to wait. 

The groundwater cleanup projects in for which USTDA paid the cost of U.S. industry reps to fly to China to boost that sector? Stop such subsidies, damnit. I'm guessing the groundwater between Seaside Heights and Point Pleasant (among other locations) could use some ameliorating. 

The list is seemningly endless. There are bigger and even more controversial projects, I am sure, the billions is no so-called "drug war" contracts among one of the more insane categories.

Oh, okay, just one more example (out of many). I know it amounts to peanuts, but the $322,000 that Department of State just spent on a 10-animal dog kennel in Iraq could have been used to rebuild damaged animal -- and human -- shelters here on the East Coast instead. Just sayin.' -- Steve Peacock

$90 Million Price Tag to Prop Up Iraqi Education Bureaucrats

A $90 million contract to build up the Iraqi national education bureaucracy has been awarded to the Washington, D.C.-based firm Creative Associates International, which likewise will be tasked with the standardization of teacher training systems across that nation.  As U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor reported earlier this year (April 16, 2012), the U.S. Agency for International Development launched the Arabic-themed USAID/Ajyal (“generations”) initiative to bring about “systems improvements to deliver quality instruction and safe learning environments.” The program will pay special attention to “expanding educational opportunities for girls, and other vulnerable populations and minorities so that they might enjoy higher engagement and retention.”

Source Document: Contract award #AID-267-C-12-00002.

U.S. Troops in Iraq Are Gone, But Embassy Costs Go On and On

By Steve Peacock

A $348 million contract to maintain the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was awarded this week by the U.S. Department of State to PAE Government Services, which will be tasked with delivering operations and maintenance services for the 104-acre compound. An unspecified portion of that amount will be devoted to providing a residence manager, two cooks, two waiters, and four housekeepers to serve the U.S. ambassador and deputy chief of mission. 

It also remains unclear how much will be spent on lawn maintenance, though The Peacock Report -- U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor's predecessor site -- reported back in 2005 that State intended at the time to allocate $1 million annually for lawn and shrubbery services.

State in 2007 had awarded to PAE an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract worth approximately $177 million to service the Baghdad compound.

Source document: Contract Award #SAQMMA-12-D-0165.

RELATED PAE GOVERNMENT SERVICES NEWS:

Pentagon Extends Kenya, Djibouti Military Support Contract (June 11, 2012)

RELATED U.S DEPARTMENT OF STATE NEWS

U.S. to Pay 'Selected' Foreign Journalists to Cover State Dept. (June 12, 2012)

Also see the Monitor's U.S.STATE DEPT. PAGE.

USAID Launching Arabic-Themed Education Project

The nation must place “sustained focus” on improving teacher quality in order to create a genuinely “democratic and economically stable society,” the Obama Administration has concluded. Consequently, the White House has decided to invest nearly $100 million into a new program to enhance primary school teaching-training and management nationwide—nationwide, that is, in Iraq.

Obama, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), even has given the initiative an Arabic title:  Ajyal, which means “generations.”

In order to improve the Government of Iraq’s ability to deliver “quality primary education,” USAID is launching the Education Strengthening Project, also known as USAID/Ajyal, according to a planning document that WND obtained through routine database research.

“Children in Iraq need quality instruction,” the agency said in a Request for Proposals dated April 12, and the U.S. is determined to bring about “systems improvements to deliver quality instruction and safe learning environments.”

Although the Iraqi Ministry of Education has 20 Teacher Training Institutes, or TTIs, throughout the nation, the facilities “lack standardized training for early primary grade teachers, who have little opportunity to receive professional development… As a result, there is no continuity or consistency in the training that teachers receive on an annual basis.”

The agency acknowledged in the document that a variety of organization already embarked upon similar endeavors.

“Other donors such as UNESCO, the World Bank, UNICEF and Save the Children have programs targeting teacher training, curriculum reform and access to education at the community level,” it said.

Nonetheless, the agency does not view this latest effort as redundant; rather, the existing programs will “complement” what USAID/Ajyal is setting out to achieve.

USAID is looking for a contractor to carry out this program by engaging the TTIs, the central offices of the Iraq Ministry of Education, provincial-level Ministry offices, and a few select primary schools.

“Special attention will be given to expanding educational opportunities for girls, and other vulnerable populations and minorities so that they might enjoy higher engagement and retention,” the Statement of Work pointed out. “These students will be aided in their transition to intermediate schools.”

FOR FURTHER REPORTING ON THE U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, PLEASE VISIT THE MONITOR'S USAID PAGE.

FOR ADDITIONAL REGIONAL COVERAGE, SEE THE MONITOR'S IRAQ PAGE.

ALSO SEE THE MONITOR'S EDUCATION PAGE.

Senators Oppose Hiding Wartime-Contracting Records for 20 Years

Many thanks to Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) for pressing the Archivist of the United States to release contracting records that the government decided to seal for the next twenty years. Considering that possibly tens of billions in contracts allegedly have been squandered or lost to fraud and mismanagament in Iraq and Afghanistan, it borders on criminal that the Archive would dare keep this critical information from the citizenry. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the government will actually rescind the decision to seal that data.

Additional thanks goes to the Project of Government Oversight, or POGO, for bringing this matter to the public's attention. POGO has made the Webb-McCaskill letter available through the group's blog.

U.S. Seeks New Means of Predicting Internet Growth Overseas, from Albania to Zimbabwe

The U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is looking for a contractor capable of developing a new analytical model to predict Internet usage and growth in thirty-two foreign nations, from "A" (Albania) to "Z" (Zimbabwe).

The agency, which runs U.S. government-funded international broadcasting systems such as Voice of America and Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television of the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, said in a Statement of Work (Solicitation #BBG50-R-11-0020) that existing models for predicting growth are inadequate. The SOW said those models solely focus on specific technology sectors rather than the Internet in its entirety:

The ultimate goal is to estimate, using empirical data, the expansion of the number of unique individuals using the Internet on a weekly basis in these markets over the next five years. While various organizations have produced such estimates and prejections for sub-segments of the Internet market, such as mobile Internet use or fixed line broadband, BBG requires estimates of the growth of the entire Internet market, regardless of platform, including use via public access facilities.

Although the BBG attempted to justifiy why it wants a new predictive model, it did not specify why it needs -- nor what it intends to do -- with such a new mode of analysis. The agency said it would apply the model to Internet usage in the following nations: Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam,  Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The BBG said the selected contractor should be able to complete the work within an eight-week period. It did not offer an estimated cost of the project.

U.S. Treasury Seeks Help in Mending Economy -- But Whose Economy?

As congressional and White House budget battles rage on along the littered landscape of national financial woes, the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury this week reached to the private sector for help in overseeing the following five areas of activity: (1) economic crimes; (2) government debt issuance and management; (3) budget and financial accountability; (4) banking and financial services, and: (5) revenue policy and revenue administration.

Ironically, this outsourced assistance will not target these problem areas here in the United States; on the contrary, Treasury is looking for help in monitoring these issues in nations such as Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, and Pakistan, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has discovered.

According to a personal services contract solicitation (#A11-105) dated July 21, the person filling the "Program Officer/Coordinator of Post-Conflict Countries" position will “provide administrative and management support” to advisers that Treasury’s Office of Technical Assistance has deployed or will deploy worldwide to a total of thirty countries,

The salary range for this slot is $62,467 to $115,742, depending on experience and education. Treasury is accepting applications until August 1.

USAID Contractor Killed in Iraq Leaves Behind Wife, Three Children

Despite whatever criticisms that may be leveled at many U.S. foreign assistance programs, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor expresses its condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of the late Dr. Stephen Everhart. The U.S. State Dept. on June 23 announced that Everhart, described as an "international development and finance expert," was killed and three others injured in a terrorist attack that took place "while working on a project to introduce a new business curriculum to a Baghdad university..."

Everhart, a former managing director of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), for the past two years had been associate dean of the American University in Cairo's (AUC) School of Finance.

AUC said in statement:

A dedicated member of our community and a model representative of our University, Steve worked with skill, humor and unflagging devotion to utilize the resources of AUC to nurture entrepreneurs and business leaders across the Middle East, and particularly, of course, in Egypt.

The university also said Everhart "leaves his wife, Stephanie, and three children, Lindsay, a student at AUC, Hannah and Cooper."

USAID Pours Millions More into Afghan Civil-Service Project

Millions of dollars in additional U.S. assistance is being provided to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to create a civil-service institutional structure in that nation.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded a $17.1 million extension to Deloitte Consulting LLP to provide another five months of work in support of the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission. (Contract award #306-C-00-07-0508-23)

The agency initially awarded a $2.4 million contract for this endeavor, known as the Afghan Civil Service Support project, early last month. (Contract award #306-C-00-07-00508-22)

Other than stating that the contract extension would enable Deloitte to perform these services “until the new end of the program October 31, 2011,” USAID did not specify why—just a month after the first award to Deloitte—that a contract nearly seven times larger than the original amount suddenly was necessary.

This project is related to a $219 million project (Solicitation #306-06-011APSO) for which main contractor Bearing Point in 2007 began carrying out “reform and capacity building” projects in Afghanistan. (Contract award #306-C-00-07-00508-22)

On a related front in the region, USAID recently awarded a $151 million contract to a vendor to provide similar civil-service reform services in Iraq (Monitor; June 13, 2011)

^{FOR ADDITIONAL COVERAGE, PLEASE ALSO VISIT THE MONITOR'S AFGHANISTAN PAGE.}

^{FOR ADDITIONAL COVERAGE OF THE U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, PLEASE VISIT THE MONITOR'S USAID PAGE.}

Poll: Citizens Say U.S. Military Too Involved Around Globe

The Hill reports on an interesting, but unsurprising, poll it conducted about the breadth of U.S. military involvement around the world. The results? Most people say we are doing too much in too many places and at too great a cost.

Separately, the Monitor today will again begin posting original articles on a near-daily basis after a brief break.