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

Corruption a Hurdle for Obama 'Power Africa' Plan

Bureaucracy proposed to overcome Kenyan obstacles

President Obama’s multi-billion-dollar “Power Africa” initiative aims to double citizen access to electricity and other power sources across Sub-Saharan Africa. But it plays down the creation of a new public-private bureaucracy needed to overcome the pervasive corruption and incompetence of African governments and power utilities.

A significant portion of the Kenya-based endeavor is designed simply to administer the program. Segments include efforts to sway public and congressional opinion in favor of the initiative, according to a new planning document U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor  located through routine database research.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, will hire a contractor or contractors primarily to persuade African officials to change regulatory governance of power distribution, explains the draft Statement of Work, or SOW. A corresponding agency goal is to encourage, with contractor assistance, the escalation of private-sector investment in the region.

This regulatory and institutional strengthening and “early stage project support” will comprise 20 percent of USAID contractor efforts.

The USAID chief of party, or COP, and deputy COP, “who will be the overall managers of the contracts,” will reserve 10 percent of program funding for those government managerial functions, the document says.

The project’s overarching goal “is to remove the power constraint to economic growth and spur trade and investment, while mitigating long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trajectories,” the draft SOW says. “Power Africa will serve as a catalyst that will spark a transformation in Africa’s energy and power sectors.

“The immediate outcome will be increased supply of and access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable power for millions of Africans and the enhanced responsible and transparent management of energy resources.”

Put in simpler terms, despite Obama’s ambitious and confident proclamations about the endeavor during his recent Africa trip, the document simultaneously affirms his vision and acknowledges the great difficulties the U.S. faces in executing such reforms.

Among other factors, the weak regulatory, policy and legal environments – made worse by continent-wide “corrupt and non-transparent bidding and contractual procedures” – serve as constraints to the sort of international investment Obama wants to bring about, the SOW says.

Political instability, a lengthy history of state-owned utilities and the “fear of change and competition” likewise deter private sector project-development and investment.

Consequently, the Obama administration expects U.S. taxpayers over the next five years to commit $7 billion toward stabilizing and correcting the investment roadblocks.

Whereas USAID will provide $285 million in technical assistance to remedy what it admits are typically corrupt and often incompetent governmental bodies and utility providers, the administration will direct the remainder of the funds through other U.S. agencies.

Among the entities are the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the U.S. Trade & Development Agency – entities that the Cato Institute says should be “terminated” because they largely serve as monumental vehicles of “corporate welfare waste.”

Reminiscent of a prior scheme to sway journalists into providing favorable coverage of its Kenyan aid program – a document for which the agency abruptly blocked public access following this writer's coverage of the matter – the USAID prime contractor also must provide communications and outreach support that will be “directed at the American public, U.S. Congress” and elsewhere, the draft SOW says.

The previous communications plan spelled out in greater detail how the Obama administration sought to target specific journalists and media groups from whom it sought favors.

USAID designed the earlier “strategic plan” specifically for Kenyan aid programs, which had grown so large that the agency solicited more contractors to support projects already under way through other vendors.

The agency kept the program quiet for a year before repackaging it with decreased emphasis, according to publicly available documents, on the propaganda angle, as the Monitor recently reported.

According to the Power Africa draft SOW, the selected vendor must devote 20 percent of its efforts under the prime contract towards “institutional support” for the program coordinator’s office.

Communications and outreach activities represent just one component of institutional support, which also entails tracking and coordinating activities among “Power Africa implementers and stakeholders” such as other U.S. agencies, host country governments and non-governmental organizations, the document says.

Although USAID’s East Africa Regional Mission in Nairobi, Kenya, is home to the coordinator’s office, Power Africa also has plans for Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

This article originally was published via WND.com (July 23, 2012). Under agreement with the editor, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.

Corruption a Hurdle for Obama 'Power Africa' Plan (WND)

One of my two latest articles via WND. -- S.P.

President Obama’s multi-billion-dollar “Power Africa” initiative aims to double citizen access to electricity and other power sources across Sub-Saharan Africa. But it plays down the creation of a new public-private bureaucracy needed to overcome the pervasive corruption and incompetence of African governments and power utilities.

A significant portion of the Kenya-based endeavor is designed simply to administer the program. Segments include efforts to sway public and congressional opinion in favor of the initiative, according to a new planning document WND located through routine database research.

Continue reading at WND.com...

Obama Wants Egyptian Students to Get More from College

Secretary of State John Kerry in March 2013 shakes hands with now-deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

President Obama wants to ensure all American adults obtain at least a year of college or career training while regaining America’s role as “world leader in college completion,” the U.S. Department of Education recently touted. The Obama administration then launched a new program to bring about such developments – in Egypt.

According to a U.S. Agency for International Development “concept paper” that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor obtained through routine database research, “Egypt now confronts a serious knowledge and skills deficit” that impedes its ability to compete globally.

U.S. taxpayers, some of whom this September will pay upwards of $45,000 annually for their own college educations, now face the additional burden of helping Egyptians make better use of their advanced degrees.

Those degrees are failing to produce adequate returns on their investments, USAID says, leading to “educated unemployment,” a phenomenon in which Egyptian college grads “are almost 10 times as likely to be unemployed than individuals with primary educations.”

USAID’s Higher Education Partnership Program hopes to bring together the government of Egypt, Egyptian institutions of higher learning and the private sector in a collaborative effort to meet the needs of this North African nation’s business community.

The U.S. has an interest in helping Egypt as it “transitions towards a democracy,” the document said.

The agency said the Egyptian education system – containing 35 universities and eight regional technical colleges consisting of 45 middle technical institutes – is the largest in the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt, however, has failed to invest “sufficient resources for these institutions to flourish as engines of knowledge transfer and creation.”

Existing institutions are struggling to “produce graduates with the skills employers seek, posing constraints for growth opportunities, particularly in high skilled economic sectors.”

USAID noted that the nation “is steeped in a tradition of education and scholarship,” pointing out that Egyptian scholars have made significant advancements in the sciences, engineering, mathematics and medicine dating back to “Pharaonic times and the Islamic Caliphate.”

Despite such an “impressive legacy,” Egypt currently lacks the infrastructure and labor force necessary “to transform the country into a vibrant center of innovation and economic prosperity.”

The agency issued a Request for Information, or RFI, to solicit feedback from contractors potentially interested in carrying out the endeavor, which could create up to 20 “university and technical college partnerships” focusing on a range of “shared priority areas” among private industry and the respective governments of Egypt and the United States.

The Obama administration in 2011 separately had been planning to provide technical assistance to Egypt to explore the creation of a nationwide system of community colleges. It remains unclear whether it ever carried out that initiative, as a thorough search of the FedBizOpps contractor database produced zero contract awards for the endeavor.

The following is a rundown of other recent U.S. foreign aid-related developments. The list is by no means exhaustive, but simply offers a snapshot of additional federal spending, both small and large.

AFRICA

The Bureau of the Public Debt at the U.S. Department of the Treasury is buying a 10-seat Toyota Land Cruiser for the U.S. African Development Foundation in the Liberian capital of Monrovia. Other than offering 14 pages of contract clauses and vehicle specifications, Treasury disclosed little else about this procurement.

Treasury separately is buying a Toyota Fortuner 4×4 for the foundation’s Malawi operations and a Toyota Land Cruiser for its Zambian facility.

KYRGYZSTAN

USAID is recruiting private-sector advisers for deployment to Kyrgyzstan, officially known as the Kyrgyz Republic, to help manage a $50 million portfolio of U.S.-funded development projects.

“Because of its proximity to South Asia and its potential to contribute to stability in nearby Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Kyrgyz Republic is of considerable geopolitical and strategic interest” to the U.S, the agency says in a Personal Contracting Services notice.

The base salary range for both the Senior Development transition specialist and the senior private sector development specialist is $84,697-$110,104.

MOZAMBIQUE

USAID will deploy an education specialist to Mozambique to help implement this southeast African nation’s new basic education program. The contractor annually will earn between $85,000 and $110,000.

Separately, USAID plans to build six rural health centers across Mozambique potentially costing $10 million. It also intends to construct three pharmaceutical warehouses costing upwards of $5 million each.

PACIFIC ISLANDS

USAID is launching the Pacific-American Climate Fund, a project to provide grants for endeavors whose aim is to “reduce long-term vulnerabilities associated with climate change and achieve sustainable climate-resilient development.”

Subject to the availability of funds, USAID expects to have a budget of about $24 million devoted to climate change adaptation efforts in island countries such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Samoa and Solomon Islands.

PAKISTAN

USAID is deploying to Islamabad a senior adviser for government-to-government direct assistance. An agency solicitation did not disclose further details about the position.

WORLDWIDE

The latest contract in USAID’s International Rule of Law Technical Assistance Services project has been awarded to Casals & Associates Inc., a subsidiary of government contracting giant DynCorp International.

The agency did not specify how or where Casals will provide services in the endeavor, which is based on the United Nations principle that “all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the state itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced, and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights law.”

Up to $500 million in Indefinite Quantity Contracts, or IQCs, could be given to Casals and other selected vendors over the next five years.

This article originally appeared June 28 via WND. Rights gave reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock, under agreement with WND.

 

U.S. Prepares for Casualties in Africa

The extrication of U.S. Special Forces injured in African military ventures soon will provide contractors with an additional revenue stream, now that the Obama administration plans to keep such vendors on stand-by, 24/7, for cross-continent airborne mobilization.

While the Pentagon’s reliance on private vendors to support international military operations is nothing new, plans to station such providers specific to such a large swath of Africa does deviate from prior procurement actions.

The Trans-Sahara Short Take-Off and Landing Airlift Support initiative will rely on outside assistance in the event that soldiers of U.S. Special Operations Command-Africa sustain traumatic medical emergencies, thereby requiring urgent transportation out of hostile zones.

Indeed, SOCOM-Africa places such urgency on its anticipated use of such Casualty Evacuation, or CASEVAC, services that, at a minimum, contractors must be capable of launching an airborne response with only a three hour notice.

The selected vendor likewise must possess the ability to be placed on heightened response and “be airborne within one hour of notification,” according a revised Performance Work Statement released April 16 that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located via routine database research.

Despite this urgency, the vendor securing that contract largely will engage in cargo- and personnel airlift activities, plus a limited number of air-drop missions.

The “most likely” locations for such operations are Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia, according to the U.S. Transportation Command solicitation.

Kenya, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Uganda also fall within the Primary Operating Area, or POA, of this endeavor, the USTRANSCOM document says.

SOCOM-Africa will enable this expedited response-capability by stationing the contractor in Burkina Faso, a landlocked West African nation, it says.

A search of prior Tactical Combat Casualty Care and CASEVAC solicitations available via the FedBizOpps system shows that USSOCOM and other Department of Defense units typically and primarily seek only training and equipment.

Rather than soliciting continent-wide provision of emergency medical and flight assistance, those contracting actions generally have sought assistance to enable combatant commands to provide themselves with such medical assistance.

One USSOCOM contracting action representative of the government’s acquisition of CASEVAC “kits” and trauma-management training, for example, described a critical need for Special Operations combat forces to obtain new techniques and technology in support of “ongoing operations worldwide.”

Another Special Ops solicitation from late last year revealed a $40 million, two-year contract extension awarded to Tribalco, LLC, a Bethesda, Maryland-based maker of CASEVAC and other “soldier-survival” equipment.

USTRANSCOM did not disclose an estimated cost of the Africa-centric CASEVAC procurement.

In other U.S. military procurement actions specific to Africa:

• The Defense Logistics Agency on April 12 issued a request for bids to provide the U.S. Air Force with 547,500 gallons of No. 2 diesel fuel “for ongoing deliveries to Niamey Airport, Niger, (Africa).”
• The U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, or NAVFAC, announced it intends to spend up to $25 million for power plant upgrades at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti (CLDJ), Africa; however, despite acknowledging in an earlier document the estimated cost of the Caterpillar generators, a partly redacted no-bid Justification & Approval document blacked out the final award amount. It offered no explanation for the redaction .
• NAVFAC additionally began soliciting bids to build a cold-storage food warehouse and a separate galley to store P-218 anti-malarial drug reserves, representing another potential $25 million contracting endeavor at CLDJ.
• NAVFAC on April 12 revealed that it awarded a $33 million contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root to “perform base operating services at CLDJ and occasionally other locations within Africa.” Despite announcing the KBR contract this month, the Navy unit actually awarded it in December, the document shows.

This article originally appeared via WND April 28. Under prior agreement, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.

Hey, MISTA, Can You Spare Some Motivation? (News Brief)

The 140 staff members of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Mozambique are getting a boost of professional motivation to perform their jobs with greater creativity -- and the agency is hiring outside help to accomplish that task. USAID today issued a Request for Quotations (#RFQ-656-12-008) to enlist the assistance of vendors capable of carrying out the Mission Innovation Synthesis Training Activity, known as MISTA for short. According to the RFQ, the agency is "seeking assistance to inspire, demonstrate, and train USAID/Mozambique staff to think and act more creatively and to find innovative approaches to the challenges they face in planning, implementing, and managing the U.S. Government's $270 million per year program of development assistance to Mozambique." A task order worth $45-$50,000 is expected to be issued to a selected contractor.

Early Reading Education-Improvement Project to Span Five Years

Having recognized that successful early reading education programs contribute to future student success both in and out of the classroom, the Obama Administration intends to execute a new program to build upon those successes.

And it intends to carry out that task in the African nation of Mozambique.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which will carry out this endeavor with private sector assistance, late last week issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) from vendors capable of launching such an initiative.  The Early Grade Reading Assessment Plus Quality Instruction and Management (EGRA+QIM) Project, as it is known, "will be one of several mechanisms for implementing the USAID/Mozambique Basic Education Program for the 2012 to 2017 period," according to the 139-page RFP.

Support will be provided through:

expert training and coaching support, and institutional development at the provincial, district, teacher training institute, and school cluster levels.

The Contractor will focus on the following areas: a) Improved in-service teacher training and coaching in reading instruction; and, b) Strengthened school management. The Contractor will seek to inspire political leadership, train and mentor education sector personnel in Mozambique to significantly advance reading outcomes in the early grades of public primary school education. The Contractor is required to ensure the cost-effectiveness of interventions and develop the capacity of local education institutions in reading assessment and instruction.

Bids are due March 2. USAID did not disclose the estimated cost of the initiative.

Source document: Solicitation #SOL-656--12-000001.