News Archive
Parsons boss quizzed over failed Baghdad college
Released on 12/11/2007
A US government watchdog has flagged up an apparent breach of promise on the part of multiple Iraqi contract winner Parsons to fix the disastrous Baghdad Police College.
The US Congress House Committee on Oversight has told the engineering and construction giant Parsons that it is investigating conflicting statements about its efforts to rectify the college, which, as reported last year by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), has been ruined by leaking sewage.
Committee chairman Henry Waxman has written to the Parsons chairman and chief executive James F. McNulty asking for copies of all documents and communications in his possession or control relating to the police college from September 2006 to the present time.
In his letter, Mr. Waxman reminds the Parsons directorate of testimony by Stuart W. Bowen at the committee’s hearing on September 28, 2006, when his report described how Parsons’ work was so grossly deficient that urine and fæcal matter was raining down on Iraqi police recruits.
For example, “toilets are continually draining through the reinforced concrete floors, from the top floor to the second floor to the ground floor, permeating and filling light fixtures, showers and toilet areas with liquids, including diluted urine and fæcal matter.”
At that time, his report stated, “the amount of material was so pervasive that it had soaked through the reinforced concrete floors causing deterioration of the reinforcing steel.”
In his letter, Mr. Waxman reminds Mr. McNulty that around that time, Earnest O. Robbins II, senior vice president and manager of the International Division at Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group, testified that Parsons would repair the college at no cost to the government, and assured the committee that “the situation is being remedied”.
Despite these statements, wrote Mr. Waxman, it appears that little improvement has been made over the past year to repair the buildings. He cited a story in the New York Times published on 6th November this year reporting that “the ceilings are still stained with excrement, parts of the structures are crumbling, and sections of the buildings are unusable because the toilets are filthy and nonfunctioning”.
The report went on to say that “the concrete used in the construction was substandard and is already collapsing in places because of the constant rain of sewage”, and further, that “the problems were so severe… that the military had also been obliged to build new latrines outside and demolish some structures entirely and start over”.
In his letter, Mr. Waxman notes that in response to this press report, a Parsons spokeswoman stated that “Parsons has not been asked to provide any additional assistance on this project or with the warranty work”.
She also asserted that Parsons completed its work at the Police College in the spring of 2006.
These recent statements, said Mr. Waxman, appear to contradict the testimony given by Mr. Robbins, who had asserted that Parsons was working to remedy the construction failures as late as September 2006.
Mr. Waxman set Parsons a deadline of 7th December for providing the papers requested by the House committee.
