The U.S. Department of State is arranging the construction of two prison facilities outside Haiti's capital of Port au Prince. The project, with an estimated top-cost of $10 million, includes a 150-bed prison and 200-bed womens prison in Petit Goave and Cabaret, Haiti, respectively. State tentatively scheduled a "pre-proposal conference and site visit" for prospective prison-industry contractors in Port au Prince for February 5-6, 2013.
Source document: Solicitation #SAQMMA13R0067.
The creation of market demand for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stoves in Haiti is one of the latest endeavors to emerge from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which says the Caribbean nation’s reliance on charcoal to cook food is contributing to “climate change” and leaves the country vulnerable to catastrophic weather conditions.
Besides, Haiti’s use of the fuel is not in its best economic interests, USAID has declared.
Although USAID admittedly met with “limited success” in previous pilot projects, that is not stopping the agency from launching yet another effort to encourage the use of LPG and other efficient “biomass” stoves. Consequently, it has unveiled what is formally known as the Improved Cooking Technology Program, which seeks to influence Haitian lawmakers to develop a “regulatory framework governing technical and commercial standards” for LPG products and services, according to the Statement of Work (Solicitation #521-11-041).
USAID is looking for a contractor to sway Haitian legislators to craft such policies, but the selected vendor also will engage in tasks to cultivate LPG stove manufacturing and distribution networks in Haiti. The contractor likewise will launch a media program in Haiti to encourage participation, the SOW says.
Although the project is not directly linked to the United Nations Foundation’s Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves—which U.S. Secy. of State Hillary Clinton helped to unveil in September 2010—the USAID endeavor is “consistent with the Alliance and will contribute towards its goals,” according to the SOW. The primary worldwide goal of the U.N. initiative is to have “100 million homes to adopt clean and efficient stoves or fuels by 2020,” the document says.
USAID did not disclose an estimated cost for the Improved Cooking Technology Program.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was modified 6/16/2011. Sorry for the confusion, but the Monitor inadvertently reported on Haiti's "reliance on coal to cook food," rather than "reliance on charcoal." Many thanks to a reader from FreeRepublic.com for pointing out that oversight.)
The federal government doled out $3.1 billion in contracts to vendors in the "War on Drugs" from 2005-2009 in Latin America alone, but has no clue whether this outsourcing was effective in helping to achieve its counternarcotics goals, a Senate panel has determined.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, yesterday (June 8) released the report, "New Information About Counternarcotics Contracts in South America."
The following is a verbatim transcript of the report's Executive Summary:
At the request of Senator Claire McCaskill, this analysis examines State Department and Defense Department spending on contracts to supply counternarcotics assistance to governments in Latin America. The analysis reviews counternarcotics contract spending over a five year period focusing primarily on eight countries: Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Haiti, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
The analysis finds that from 2005 to 2009, the federal government’s annual spending on counternarcotics contracts in Latin America rose by 32%, from $482 million in 2005 to $635.8 million in 2009. In total, the government spent more than $3.1 billion on counternarcotics contracts during this period.
Key findings in the analysis include:
From 2005 to 2009, the majority of counternarcotics contracts in Latin America went to only five contractors: DynCorp, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, ITT, and ARINC, who collectively received contracts worth over $1.8 billion.
The State Department and the Defense Department spent nearly $2 billion on counternarcotics contracts in Colombia alone from 2005 to 2009.
More than half (52%) of counternarcotics contract dollars during this time period were spent to acquire goods and services related to aircraft, which are used for drug location and eradication. In total, the federal government spent approximately $1.6 billion on aircraft-related services, maintenance, logistics, support, equipment, and training from 2005 to 2009.
Neither the State Department nor the Defense Department has adequate systems in place to track counternarcotics contract data. Testifying before the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight in 2010, Defense Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counternarcotics and Global Threats William Wechsler called the Defense Department’s processes for managing counternarcotics contracts “inconsistent,” “time-consuming and error prone.” The State Department simply does not have a centralized system to collect or track this type of information.
While spending on counternarcotics contracts increased by 32% over the five year period under review, contract management and oversight has been insufficient, and has not kept pace with the government’s increased reliance on contractors.
The federal government does not have any uniform systems in place to track or evaluate whether counternarcotics contracts are achieving their goals.
The complete report also is available for download (.pdf, 501.65 kb).
Many thanks to David Isenberg, author of Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq (Praeger Security International), for alerting the Monitor to this report via his blog The PMSC Observer (free; registration required).
A U.S. taxpayer-funded overseas "clean energy" initiative will top the billion-dollar mark if U.S. Agency for International Development plans are moved forward.
Most of the funds – some of which have not yet received congressional authorization – are devoted to energy infrastructure and exploration projects in USAID-designated “critical priority countries” such as Pakistan, Haiti and Afghanistan.
Wielding significant authority over such projects is Eric Postel, a former Citicorp vice president and founder of the Pangaea Partners investment firm.
Postel assumed the position when the Senate on March 3 approved his appointment as assistant administrator of USAID's Bureau of Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade.
Federal Elections Commission records show that Postel has a long track record of supporting liberal icons from his home state of Wisconsin, such as three-term Democrat Russ Feingold, who last year lost his Senate seat to Republican newcomer Ron Johnson.
Though most of the $15,000 in donations that Postel made over the past decade either went to Feingold or to the Democratic National Committee, some of the funds made their way to the coffers of Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who last year made National Journal’s top-10 list of The Most Liberal Members of the House of Representatives.
USAID hopes to leverage Postel's leadership to further the development of global energy campaigns, including Afghanistan’s Shiberghan gas field and power plant project.
Alexandria Panehal, a Harvard University-educated deputy assistant administrator who reports to Postel, sent an “action memorandum” to her boss dated March 30 urging him to elevate to $738 million the potential ceiling for one solicitation, #SOL-OAA-10-000022.
According to the document, which was located via routine database research, the $88 million boost to what is known as the Energy II initiative also will be used to support Pakistani "power generation, transmission, and distribution performance improvement activities."
The Electricity de Haiti Utility also would benefit from this increase, as would dozens of foreign nations "who have indicated an interest" in receiving USAID funds under "Low Emission Development Strategies" and "Other Clean Energy” endeavors.
U.S. foreign assistance objectives will "be impaired if a suitable rapid response contracting mechanism is not available for energy sector assistance," Panehal claims in the memo – while also acknowledging, "To date, 53 task orders totaling $590.4 million have been awarded."
Consequently, USAID recently approved the new contract, #EPP-I-00-03-00008, according to a Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition document located in the federal database.
An additional $350 million will be slated for other "clean energy" projects targeting what are known as "Non-Critical Priority Countries," according to a separate but related solicitation, # SOL-OAA-11-000034.
The primary goals of this initiative are to rein in so-called "global climate change" and to improve the capacity of key energy sector stakeholders, which would include financial institutions as well as energy utilities, the document says.
"USAID's clean energy programs and activities reduce global warming," the document claims, "by promoting the sustainable use of renewable energy technologies [and] energy efficient end-use technologies."
These endeavors, according to the document, help nations receiving aid to "move to a low-emission society."
Contractors selected for the program are required to help "strengthen participation in the goals" of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, it also says.
Despite the ambitious plan, USAID admits that accomplishing the program's goals will be challenging. The U.S. government must make the attempt, however, because "expanding access to affordable, reliable, efficient, and clean energy services empowers people to take a major step out of poverty into a better future."
Analyses of linkages between energy independence and economic security reveal, it says, a disturbing fact: "Dependence on imported fuels leaves many countries and communities vulnerable to price volatility and disruptions in supply, resulting in dangerous social, economic, and political consequences."
(This article originally appeared April 22, 2011, in WorldNetDaily.)
