The Pentagon said on Monday it had delayed until early January a conference for companies wanting to bid for $18.6 billion in U.S.-funded contracts to rebuild Iraq that was scheduled for this week.
The Pentagon has also delayed several times the issue of tenders for the deals, which have been clouded with controversy after the U.S. military limited competition for prime contracts to nations that supported the U.S. war effort.
The bidding conference, which had been set for Friday near Washington D.C., will now be held early in January, said Robyn Powell of the National Defense Industrial Association, which coordinates meetings between industry and the military.
"I don't know why the conference has been canceled again," Powell told Reuters.
The Defense Department has drawn up a list of 63 nations eligible to bid on a second round of prime contracts using U.S. taxpayer money, ranging from usual trading partners such as Britain, Spain, Italy and Australia to Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tonga.
The decision shut out companies from France, Germany, Canada and Russia as well as scores of other nations that opposed the decision to invade Iraq without U.N. backing.
The first rounds of contracts for Iraq also came under fire, with Democrats and others charging that companies with close links to the White House have so far been given the lion's share of the lucrative, dangerous work.
Draft proposals for the Iraq work were issued last month via U.S. government Web sites (www.fedbizopps.gov and www.rebuilding-iraq.net). Proposals were set to be released 10 days ago but were delayed several times.
The Program Management Office, which is in charge of contracts on behalf the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, said on its Web site the solicitations would be issued between Dec. 15 and Dec. 19.
"There are significant changes in these solicitations from the previous draft postings," said the notice, which did not provide details on the changes.
The PMO has set an aggressive timetable for issuing the contracts to rebuild Iraq and said last month it hoped to issue all the work by the first week of February.
Companies have complained about the quick turnaround times between the tenders being issued and the final award of contracts, saying this gives bigger, more established companies an edge.
