by CKR
Contrack International, of Arlington, Virginia, has decided to pull out of its contract with the US Defense Department to reconstruct Iraq's transportation systems. Apparently it has found that
"the original scope of work that was envisioned could not be executed in a cost-effective manner".
Must have been a fixed-price contract, although the Defense Department hardly ever uses those. More likely, as is being generally reported, security was the issue. Another downside to contracting may be that the contractors can pull out whenever. So the rebuilding in Iraq slows down a bit more.
One might question the wisdom of getting large numbers of US personnel together to be fed in a tent in Mosul. Seems like a good target to me, and apparently to someone else as well. But the military is outsourcing that kind of thing to the contractors too. Much more cost-effective to do it all at once in one place.