The Army Corps--Who Else Detects a Pattern?

It has been at least a month since the New Orleans Times-Picayune laid out in detail the story of the US Army Corps of Engineers woefully behind-the-curve debris removal program in the Crescent City, so behind the curve that in my devastated areas of town one would be hard-pressed to imagine that such a thing as a debris-removal program exists. Salient in the paper's findings was the fact that the Corps employed a many-tiered approach: the Corps hired a prime (often out-of-state) contractor, which in turn hired several (often out-of-state) subcontractors. At the bottom of the ladder, actually doing the work, were (sometimes local) sub-sub or even sub-sub-sub-contractors, being paid a fraction per unit of debris what the prime contractor was billing.

Now comes the Washington Post with a story about the Corps' program to build medical clinics in Iraq (man, this organization can do anything, as long as you're not expecting quality results). The key: the program will end with only about 15% of the clinics being completed. The management technique: see if this sounds familiar...

In April 2004, the project was awarded to Parsons Inc. of Pasadena, Calif., a leading construction firm in domestic and international markets. McCoy, the Corps of Engineers commander, said Parsons has been awarded about $1 billion in reconstruction projects in Iraq.

Like much U.S. government work in 2003 and 2004, the contract was awarded on terms known as "cost-plus," Parsons said, meaning that the company could bill the government for its actual cost, rather than a cost agreed to at the start, and add a profit margin. The deal was also classified as "design-build," in which the contractor oversees the project from design to completion.

These terms, among the most generous possible for contractors, were meant to encourage companies to undertake projects in a dangerous environment and complete them quickly.

McCoy said Parsons subcontracted the clinics to four main Iraqi companies, which often hired local firms to do the actual construction, creating several tiers of overhead costs.

The Fantasy Assignment Desk wishes some journalist would connect the dots on the work the Army Corps does on multiple continents, and ask the obvious questions--like, how much failure is reason to look elsewhere for these projects?