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Video: Electric and Water Systems Sectoral Conference
Transcript:MR. FOX --for Legislative and Public Affairs here at the United States Agency for International Development. I welcome both all of you who were here in person, as well as those through the webcast and other means of listening in on us this morning. This is the second in a series of sectoral consultations we're having with regard to our efforts on reconstruction in Iraq. This, I should remind everybody, is supposed to be a dialogue. There are some folks from the press here. However, this is not a press conference, and we would encourage members of the press to listen to your comments, as well as ours, and at the conclusion of the discussion, we will have press people available to talk about those issues with the press directly. As we did before, I want to kick off this particular session by introducing our assistant administrator for Asia and the Near East, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin, who is a career Foreign Service officer with tremendous experience, having been ambassador to Pakistan and Laos, prior to our benefitting from her service here at AID at a very critical moment. So let me turn it over to Wendy for a few opening remarks. AMBASSADOR CHAMBERLIN: Thank you, Ed, and thank you all for coming today. As Ed mentioned, he described this as our second sectoral meeting that we've had on water and sanitation. I'd like to point out it's the second one in a post-contract situation. We actually began some of our planning many, many months ago on a contingency basis, on the contingency that we would not be able to avoid war, which is something that the President wanted to do, and Secretary Powell worked very hard to do. Unfortunately, as you saw, Saddam Hussein chose war, and the rest is history. But the point was we wanted to be ready. We wanted to be ready for the day that is yet to come, and that day is day one of the reconstruction period. The reconstruction period will come, and day one will be in a post-conflict environment, which is about to come very shortly, as I understand, from reading the press. But we wanted to be ready, and as you all know because you're in the business, it takes a lot of planning to do the kinds of things that you will be required to do in Iraq in putting back together and providing for the people repaired and functioning water and sanitation systems. So we had reached out earlier on a very sort of not publicized way to gather information: What are the needs in Iraq? What kinds of things should we be planning against? And on the basis of that we did make some very extensive time-line planning. We got the authorities from the Congress, we secured some funding, which the Congress and the President in their generosity have funded amply. In fact, I would say almost record-breaking generosity on the part of the American people, Congress and President in our initial response to the reconstruction of Iraq, and that's all been in the newspapers. You've seen it. Now, I'd like to say just one last word here before I turn this session over to our true experts on the matter, and that is the emphasis on water and sanitation. We, as we began to look at the situation and the needs in Iraq, it became very evident to us that this was a reconstruction crisis, and the area that would need the most reconstruction the quickest in order to provide for the people of Iraq was in the water and sanitation area. We were beginning to hear some horrifying stories about how Saddam Hussein and the Baathist Party had targeted water and sanitation systems to let them run down in certain areas of populations that were less supportive to his regime than Shi'a. So almost as a means of control of the population, we were hearing stories that some of the OFF funding that used to purchase spare parts and generators for the water and sanitation systems were left sitting in warehouses, were not installed, that water and sanitation systems were purposely not provided to certain populations, particularly in places like Basra, that much needed to be done; in other words, that this sector was used for political purposes. So this sector is one that is, in our estimation, research was run down before we even go in there. So a great deal of the initial efforts on our part, and the reconstruction part, will be in water and sanitation on a very urgent basis. How's it going to work? Well, that's what we're going to talk about today, but it doesn't mean we have all of the answers. We have put in place large contracts, both in health and in reconstruction, to get at the issues of water and sanitation. These are accordion contracts. They're not done with any great specificity. You can't do a contract with great specificity until you've been in on the ground and do some ground-truthing as to what the needs are. But the platform is there. The umbrella is there, and now we need to fill it in, but we want to fill it in with solid plans, good research, real needs, and that is just about the phase we're moving into. We are still looking for information. We're still in the process of being educated as to how best to go about it quickly, with the sole objective of providing for the needs of the Iraqi people as quickly as possible. So we have organized this sector, and others, to bring together experts to talk about the issue. We hope that this is will be interactive. We're looking for your expertise. We want to hear your ideas. We want you to tell us. We want to be informed in these sessions. We're not going to stand up here at a podium, and talk in a microphone and tell you everything. That's not how it's going to work. So I really encourage you to, a lot of experience out there, both from the engineers, from Iraqi Americans, from people who worked in the region for many, many years, you stand up there and tell us what we need to know to guide our planning so that we all achieve our objective, and I'll repeat it again, that's to help the Iraqi people as quickly as possible. So I'd like now to turn the podium over to Larry Sampler, who is an expert in the area, and he will give you some background on how our contracting process will work, and how you can best influence it, and where we need your input. Thank you very much. MR. SAMPLER: I thank you all for coming today. I'm going to be very, very brief. As Wendy said, this is an interactive process, and I'm much more interested in our staff hearing from you than I am standing up here and regurgitating things that you probably already read in the news or have seen on the web pages. I want to introduce several other people, though, before I start, my staff. Patrick Brady is arranging these meetings each Tuesday and Thursday. I have two experts in water sanitation and in general engineering services, Jim Guy and Jim Bell. So you'll have to refer to them by last name, Jim won't do. Is John Wilson here? We have another USAID expert on environmental matters in water and sanitation who will probably join us. And then, finally, I want to see is Darrel O'Reilly here? I wanted to acknowledge UNDP. The things that AID is doing now, as beginners and neophytes, UNDP has been in Iraq doing for a number of years. So, to set the stage for opening the floor to discussion and questions and answers and back and forth, I just want to note that what we're doing is not necessarily new for the international community. AID has been planning this since late last year. The planning process was initially very closed, very closely held because it would not be appropriate for USAID to publicly plan for a war that had not been declared. And, in fact, the intent all along was that we would avoid war if at all possible. Under rubric of hope for the best and plan for the worst, we did do some initial planning, and what we're seeing now is that planning to come to fruition. The military has a euphemism that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and we discovered as well that with our plans for reconstruction, that's been true. You should have gotten in your chair a fact sheet. It was a two-sided piece of paper. On one side talked about water and sanitation and on the other side it talked about electric power generation. There's nothing stunning on those sheets, but they're in your chair just to show you what our benchmarks are, sort of the milestones from where we're beginning our work. I'll draw your attention to a couple of points, and we'll start with the water sanitation side. For those who don't understand the importance of water and sanitation, the issue is not just one of having water, but it's having water that's safe to drink. I'll draw, again, your attention to the humanitarian and social impact. It's about halfway down the page. From 1990 to 1996, typhoid fever increased from 2,400 cases per year to over 27,000. Roughly, 20 percent of the population is at physical risk because they don't have safe drinking water. Water sanitation then becomes an issue not just of engineering, but one of humanitarian need. One other thing that I'll share with you from our daily report to show that there is movement and to show that USAID and others on the ground are making progress is today, as of the 29th, in Basra, two major water plants have improved their efficiency from a pre-war level of 35 percent to 80 percent or greater. Again, pre-war was at 35-percent capacity, and it's now at 80 percent. It's good news, but not perfect yet. Because what we've discovered is that's increased the capacity of water delivered to certain sectors of society. It's not broadly available. With regard to electric power generation, if you'll flip that sheet over, I'll draw your attention to the first four bullets here. Those, again, are just benchmarks. Prior to the 1991 war, total electric capacity was 9,500 megawatts. March 2003 it's much, much lower. There is no electric power available in Southern Central Iraq or there has been none available and that has again impact. The water supply for Iraq is provided by pumps that are electrically powered. The water sanitation equipment is run by electric power. The wastewater treatment plants are run by electric power. So these are all linked requirements and necessities. Again, going through today's daily report, with respect to electricity, we find the supply of power in Iraq remains at about 1,800 megawatts, and again that's from a pre-war capacity of about 9,500. Pre-conflict, immediately before this conflict, the capacity was 5,500. So from '91 to this war, there was a drop from '95 to '55 and then post-conflict, it's now come back to 1,800. Increases in power generation and distribution are constrained by transmission line and substation problems, especially at the 400 KV level. USAID and Bechtel are sending teams around Baghdad and to the South to address these issues. So we're now at the point where we're doing the assessments. We're beginning to identify what precisely has to be fixed, what precisely systemically has to be fixed and who do we use the resources that AID has contracted to address those issues. I'm going to stop at that point. What I think I would like to do is, for the purposes of the webcast, please go to one of the microphones or go to the microphone and address questions to the podium, and then I'll have Jim Guy and Jim Bell address them as appropriate. And Darrel, please, I would love to see your hand at any point in the presentation if you'd like to contribute or have particular observations you'd like to offer. I warn you, too, if there aren't questions, I'll just keep talking until we all give up. [Laughter.] MR. SAMPLER: Yes, sir, please. QUESTION: In the list of RFPs, my question is, if there are capabilities available that are not suggested in the RFP, how would one deal with that? Let me be very specific. We currently have on the ground in the Middle East portable containerized water treatment plants, with the capacity to deliver 7 million liters a day with portable generators. We can have that in operation in two weeks. There's no RFP for that. MR. SAMPLER: Actually, when you come to the podium, I'll ask, identify yourself. QUESTION: My name is Don Stewart. I'm with a company called Ridgewood, which is based in New Jersey, and we have a wholly owned subsidiary in the Middle East. MR. SAMPLER: The issue of what's in or not in the RFPs is a good one, and I perhaps should have addressed it up front. In that planning process, as this went forward, we didn't know what we would require. Obviously, potable water was something we were aware of. Typically, the immediate response for potable water needs were addressed by the DART, the Disaster Assistance Response Teams. They have or the DART has preexisting contractual arrangements to provide potable water in some cases. They don't normally have the capacity as required by an entire nation or of the magnitude that Iraq has required. What you can watch for is the contractor, for example, Bechtel is a prime contractor for Iraq reconstruction. Bechtel may address needs that were not reflected in the initial RFP through subcontracts. Now, if it's not in the original contract, Bechtel has to come back for a modification, and that's a USAID-intensive-- QUESTION: [Off microphone.] There's no opportunity to make [inaudible]. MR. SAMPLER: I'm not aware of a mechanism. And I'll tell you what, if you'll, at the end of the day speak to Patrick, I will get you a more precise response to that. You've asked a question that exceeds my capacity to answer factually, so I will get you a correct response to that. The USAID doesn't have enough manpower to take the number of unsolicited RFPs that come in. I will say we have an office here called the Response Management Team, which terminates a lot of the unsolicited traffic that comes in, and we've gotten offers of help from as far as Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Sante Fe, New Mexico, everything from sheetrock to roofing materials, to potable water treatment facilities. We certainly don't discard those, but there's not a mechanism to respond to each one. I'll let Jim Bell address, in fact, Jim, why don't you get up now and address just the capacity that we have on hand in operation already for potable water. MR. BELL: Mr. Stewart, first of all, thank you for your question. We do anticipate, under the reconstruction contract, that it has the water and sanitation sector is a component of that activity; meaning that the first step is to do these assessments, as Larry had just mentioned. Assessments are being done by the DART team, Disaster Assistance Response Teams, that are part of OFDA, Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. Bechtel will also be out there doing some assessments in coordination with the DART and probably also with the other donor organizations. UNICEF is out there, the International Committee of Red Cross is out there, and specific to desalinization units, they would be, and we would anticipate that being part of the program, particularly in the Southern part of Iraq, where water quality, in terms of dissolved minerals, et cetera, is more of an issue than we might find in some other regions. That determination, again, we would anticipate coming into Bechtel, and Bechtel would, in turn, go to suppliers and other companies. We would anticipate there are going to be certainly subcontracts on that or they would just go straight to a company to buy whatever units they think are possible. I would like to stress that these are potable water systems, which means that we have the obligation to meet international standards, in terms of the quality of the water. Same thing with sanitation, we'll be working I think with standards, as they're presented, and we would anticipate that Bechtel would be doing these assessments and looking toward certainly the private sector for the provision of equipment, as needed, not only for potable water, but also in the sanitation sector and also in solid waste disposal. I thank you. MR. SAMPLER: Actually, two revisions. I've been corrected. Within the Bechtel contract, there is a "sea line"[?] for a provision for providing potable water. So I would ask you to look, again, at the Bechtel RFP or the agreement with Bechtel, and then if you have capacity that you'd be interested in having them take advantage of, to communicate that to Bechtel, which comes to the second point. Bechtel has tentatively agreed or planned or envisioned two subcontracting conferences. We spoke with them this morning, and they don't have dates yet, unless you, Christine, have you heard anything more on dates? MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] May 13th, in the Washington, D.C., area, there will be a forum, and May 15th and 16th in London there will be another forum. MR. SAMPLER: Well, let me say that for the microphone and the webcast. May 13th, in the D.C. area, there will be a forum, and then the 15th and 16th of May in London there will be a forum. And what we were told this morning was that the Bechtel web page will have the details of those forums. Those are going to be perfect opportunities to address the kind of excess capacity or unrealized capacity that you were describing, in terms of potable water. I should also introduce Christine Lyons is the contracting officer who has arranged a number of these contracts. AID is not nearly as transparent as sometimes we would think. The amount of work that's gone into producing contracts with the dollar amounts and the complexity that have been produced for Iraq is staggering, and Christine was responsible for the Bechtel. Internally, we referred to it as the "mother of all contracts" because it was just so enormous-- [Laughter.] MR. SAMPLER: --in terms of scope, and complexity, and even public scrutiny. It has received a tremendous amount of public scrutiny. So Christine has done tremendous work in putting that together. She's here partly to keep me honest and make sure that the things that we say about her contract are accurate. I'll also introduce John Wilson, who just slipped in. John does work in the field of the environment, which would include water and sanitation and the health impacts of environmental issues, and we are actively engaged, as we are in other fields, in environmental impact studies within Iraq. John is part of an interagency review panel and interagency decision-making body that will look at the things the U.S. Government does in post-conflict Iraq to make sure that the environmental impacts are at least acknowledged and mitigated wherever possible. Another question. Yes, sir? QUESTION: Good morning. My name is Jim Regan with International Business Government Counselors. My question relates to how the DART personnel, people on the DART team, who I have heard are in locations such as Kuwait City, and Amman and locations in Turkey, will be moving into offices on the ground, and will there be a mechanism for establishing contact with them and meeting with them as the assessments continue? MR. SAMPLER: Let me clarify just a little bit, at the risk of repeating information, some of you may know--there may be some who don't--USAID personnel on the ground are deployed in the DART, the Disaster Assistance Response Team, but also in what we're referring to loosely as the "Reconstruction Mission." The division of labor here, to use a medical analogy, the DART is the equivalent of an ambulance, which rushes out and provides life-giving assistance. They stop the bleeding and stabilize the patient. The Reconstruction Mission personnel are the ones who provide more long-term care and care of a more holistic nature. So if you're involved in the delivery of immediate assistance--plastic sheeting, immediate food, things that keep people for brief periods or for not a sustained period of time--then it is appropriate for you to engage via the DART. Most of the engagement that we envision, however, will be with the Reconstruction Mission Team. It's directed by Lewis Lucke. It's kind of divided right now. It was headquartered in Kuwait City until about a week ago. Lew and his senior staff have now moved to Baghdad with retired General Jake Garner. The functional experts of his staff, which mirror the staff we have here in Washington, are still in Kuwait City. So I would expect that most of the interaction between the business community and the AID mission down range would be through Lew Lucke and his reconstruction effort. We don't have a point of contact in terms of an e-mail address or a web page for them specifically at this point. That's probably something we should capture. At some point, we should provide that. I will tell you that right now, during the period of the war, Lew was having to respond to an awful lot of intergovernmental RFIs, or requests for information, and at one point we got an e-mail back from Lew that involved a lot of text, and then a big blank spot and then some more text, and Lew said it's awfully hard to type with his protective mask on. So the environment in which they're working right now is not one that allows them to respond to an awful lot of information. What we'll ask is use us here in Washington as your point of contact, initially, and then we will direct you to the right person in the field. We're not at all trying to protect them or keep you separate from them, but it just lets us make sure that they get a manageable number of contacts per day to turn around. Yes, sir? QUESTION: Good morning. My name is Sotr Ghondor [ph], Metito. Can you talk about the difference between what's defined as emergency systems vis-a-vis a construction, I mean, basically two different stuff. Our understanding of the Bechtels and so forth are working on the construction stuff, but the question is what about emergency? To be specific, as an example, just last week we have just shipped a number of packaged water treatment plants to Iraq for the Army. So can you talk about more about what's the difference between the two, please. MR. SAMPLER: Sure. Thank you, sir. We could actually talk about it for the rest of the week, almost. The division of responsibility, if my family is thirsty, it's an emergency to me, even if it's not to the greater community. So how those things are defined and separated is subjective. The way that we've done it is, again, the DARTs, because they typically respond to things like hurricanes and natural disasters, they have preexisting contracts and, in fact, they have prepositioned a lot of the supplies that they use around the world, in supply bases around the world for quick response. In the event of something like an Iraq, they don't typically have a huge upsurge in the number of procurements they make, other than to replace existing stock. Now, Iraq was a little different because they also were planning in advance, knowing that this would be a horse of a different color, so to speak. So they did do some additional procurement to prepare, as would be expected. The difference is not in necessarily the equipment or the systems that are procured, it's in how they're applied and when they're shipped to theater. For example, the exact same portable potable water system purchased by DART would be for immediate deployment forward. It would probably have pallet space reserved for it on military airlift going in during the particularly appropriate time in the engagement. That same water system, if it's procured under the reconstruction contracts, will be much further down the stream chronologically in terms of deployment into theater. So the Dart, their mission is to envision and plan for the worst-possible humanitarian disaster and think about how they would mitigate that, and what equipment they would require and so on and so on. The reconstruction team is looking more at chronic issues, longer term. DART is looking at how do we provide potable water for 30, 60 or 90 days. Reconstruction is looking at how do we build an Iraqi system to provide potable water for the next 20 years. So thinking about particular pieces of equipment that you wish to sell or services that you wish to provide, you need to think do you couch it in the very finite, very fixed emergency response category or is what you're providing more of a systemic approach to solving chronic problems in a place like Iraq? Christine? MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] Can I just add an example to that? MR. SAMPLER: Sure. MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] We have a provision in the contract-- MR. SAMPLER: Christine, come up here and do it so that the web people can hear that. MS. LYONS: We have a provision in the contract to provide electrical generators. We were estimating 500, and this was for life of contract. I had the people fielded Easter weekend to deal with the electrical issues in Baghdad. In the meantime--under the Bechtel contract--in the meantime, the Army Corps of Engineers had already acquired generators, and was arranging for transport to the theater via military planes. So my response to that was to tell the contractor hold off on buying electrical generators at this point. Get out there, and now they're out there. We're getting more people out to do the assessments. And just to follow onto what Don was saying is that we have two different kinds of assessments going on; one is for emergency requirements and the other is for the long term, and the Bechtel infrastructure contract is looking at the longer term, although they only have 18 months to complete the contract. MR. SAMPLER: Another issue that you've raised, you've mentioned the fact that the military was purchasing some of this equipment. In an ideal world, there would be one point of entry for all of this, and the coordination would be immaculate in everything. There would be no duplication of effort anywhere in the U.S. Government, but then I don't think you could call that "government" if it was that efficient. [Laughter.] MR. SAMPLER: What we have done is both in Kuwait City, and shortly in Baghdad, but both in the field and here in Washington, we set up pretty well interlaced coordination structures. For example, I have a lot of visibility on what the U.S. Corps of Engineers is doing, and what they intend to be doing, and what their procurement patterns look like, and vice versa. They have pretty good visibility on ours. And I think we've done a pretty good job of preventing duplications of effort and procurement. And what Christine was describing is exactly right. When we discovered that the Corps of Engineers had a mechanism for moving generators faster than we could, we stood back and redirected our efforts in that particular case to technicians who could work on the power grid that these generators would be connected to. Yes, sir? QUESTION: My name is Arturo [?], [?] ICOS Corporation. We are both subcontractors of civil work, heavy foundation and procuring also specialty foundation and water well equipment. I understand that the initial contract will be through Bechtel, but some of the longest infrastructure project will be probably beyond 18 months. Do you expect to issue different contracts, to extend the contract to Bechtel, maybe get the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers involved in the long-term projects? MR. SAMPLER: Sure. The terms of the contracts were predicated on the funding that we received at USAID for doing this reconstruction work. I completely agree that it's not feasible to think that we'll get this all done in 18 months. So what USAID will do beyond 18 months is going to be determined by what Congress provides in terms of funding and support. Your question about involving the Corps of Engineers, they've been involved from the very beginning. They've been somewhat limited, in terms of the contracts that they manipulate, because they've been fairly well occupied fighting and winning a war. Now, as the actual combat phase of operations begins to diminish, there may be other roles that the Corps of Engineers will assume. They've done quite a lot of work with us at the Port of Um Qasr, working on the dredging issues for the port. The intent of USAID is to identify needs first and then match those needs with the capacities that are most economical and most timely available or most quickly available. In some cases, those are not going to be the same resource. The Corps of Engineers is certainly, in almost every case, very, very quick in being able to execute and implement. So, yes, the Corps of Engineers will have a role. It's yet to be determined what that will be. I also have to mention I did a similar role in Afghanistan, and what we learned there was that the Corps of Engineers in the military are a little bit limited in terms of what they choose to take on because they are a unit of the United States military. So their focus is sometimes a little different from that of a purely reconstruction perspective, but we will be using the Corps of Engineers when and as appropriate. Yes, sir? QUESTION: My name is Chris Lubern [ph]. I'm with Water Systems Optimization. Our expertise is in the area of leakage water loss, and we're a division of Bristol Water Services out of the U.K. My question is the criteria of individuals that would be used on that project. Do they need to be U.S. citizens or can they be from our other offices throughout the world? MR. SAMPLER: At this point, for subcontractors, there is not a requirement that they be U.S. corporations or U.S. citizens, to my knowledge, at all. Christine, are there limitations that you're aware of? MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] The limitations are countries of the Free World, including the United States, and it excludes Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Syria and Libya. MR. SAMPLER: For the webcast participants, the response was that individuals must be countries of the Free World, which includes the United States, but excludes Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Cuba-- MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] And North Korea. MR. SAMPLER: --and North Korea. MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] Which are the foreign policy restrictions. MR. SAMPLER: Other question? There was one over here. Yes, sir? QUESTION: I am Les Janka with Jefferson Waterman International. We represent a large number of U.S. equipment suppliers. It's basically the same question about the U.S. principle over the years of preference for U.S. source and origin on equipment and supplies. My question goes to the Bechtel contract. You've said there are no restrictions in it, but we've also been reading in the press that Spain, Portugal, Turkey, others have said, "Well, we've been promised a big chunk of the contract or a certain share of subcontracts." How is it really going to work to say, "Well, we will be sure that a certain percentage goes to this country," and then what about the principle of taxpayer money going to U.S. corporations and U.S. suppliers? MR. SAMPLER: Sure. One comment, and then I'm going to turn it over to Christine. She'll kick me if I get this wrong. The usual provision for U.S. first is certainly the intent and the expectation of USAID. In this case, no one has been promised a big chunk of anything. There have been comments made, which Christine will be able to comment on, but we're working with our contractors for them to identify subcontractors who are the most efficient and effective at doing what they need to do. I'll let Christine address the rest. MS. LYONS: I spent about 30 minutes on the phone yesterday with someone explaining this whole point. When we did this procurement, particularly on the infrastructure reconstruction, we used the authority that was granted to us by the Administrator of AID, which was to go to the Free World. There is always a preference for U.S. companies. The decision to limit the actual infrastructure reconstruction, we got some nasty mails, and we had some High Commissioners and everything else visiting us here complaining about that. But like you said, this is U.S. taxpayers' money, and I'm one of them, and we start at home first. As far as the subcontracts are concerned, like I said, it's the Free World. No one has been promised anything. Everything comes through me. I have to concur, in accordance with FAR Part 44, and I stand before you and the world and tell you that no one has been promised anything. One of the issues right now that we're struggling with is how to deal with Iraqi firms. And I read institution Washington Post today that the Iraqis are already on the oil wells, and they're ready to work, and they're working, and they want to get things up and going. We still have the problem of the U.N. sanctions. We also have the Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC. We do have an OFAC that does allow us to do certain things, as defined as humanitarian assistance, and we have had an interpretation that the reconstruction effort is a humanitarian assistance. So we're covered on that. As far as the Export Administration regulation from the Department of Commerce, I've also looked into that from the very beginning because we are also required to follow that in accordance with the OFAC, and the OFAC, the Export Administration regulation excludes humanitarian assistance, and anything that's not exported from the United States would not fall under that regulation. The biggest problem for us right now is the U.N. sanctions list. I understand I have not been able, and have not had the time to download the 450 pages of the list and have not been able to get that, but that's what it is, and we're still bound by that, and the administration is trying to negotiate with the U.N. to get that lifted. Internally, USAID is trying to change the source and origin to allow Iraqi firms to be eligible source and origins and nationalities. However, until the sanctions expire, we're still bound by the sanctions, and we're still bound by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. If you need some more details, I'll be willing to provide you more information. But basically we have our hands strapped. But I do want to assure you that no one has been promised anything. MR. SAMPLER: Just to follow up the discussion. There have been a number of reports of Coalition partners who are doing reconstruction efforts in Iraq and how we coordinate that. Because you hear of a Coalition partner does not necessarily mean they're USAID-funded activity. The Brits and a number of European entities are funding some of their own reconstruction work in Iraq. I believe the Brits are doing some very significant work in the Port of Um Qasr, which is funded through DIFD, through their own USAID equivalent. So just because they're there doesn't mean they're on our dime. QUESTION: I'm Bob Mason. I'm with a company, the Ford Meter Box Company. We're a manufacturer of water supply distribution equipment, and we've been involved in many developing countries throughout the past several decades. One of the problems we're having is we've been redirected to the Bechtel website to register as a supplier for this contract, but as hard as it is for a salesman to follow directions, we have followed directions, and we haven't been successful in registering at the website. Has that been a common problem that you've heard about? MR. SAMPLER: Let me address it from the podium. By a show of hands, how many of you have had difficulty registering at the website? That's certainly something that we can address with Bechtel and just to let them know that you're having difficulties. MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible] the ultimate address is there, 50 Beale Street, San Francisco, Human Resources, Attention: Iraq Team. That's the snail mail way, but-- MR. : [Off microphone.] That's a black hole. MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] No, but Attention Human Resources, Iraq Team. MR. SAMPLER: But we will also speak to Bechtel and just let them know that there are difficulties registering with their web page. It wouldn't surprise me if part of it has to do with volume of responses at this point as well. [Laughter.] MR. SAMPLER: Sir, did you have a question? QUESTION: Yes, hi. Good morning. I'm Kevin Gillen with Dominion[?] Post Training & Communications Company. I see the Air Force Contract Augmentation Program on both sides of this piece of paper. MR. SAMPLER: Yes. QUESTION: What's their role? MR. SAMPLER: We refer to as AFCAP. It does stand for Air Force Contract Augmentation Program. And, again, going back to the pre-war period when we were planning for what we were going to do, AID knew that we would be bringing an awful lot of contractors into Iraq, and we didn't want to duplicate service and support efforts. So what the AFCAP is doing for us is on-demand provision of logistical support to our contractors. So, for example, if Bechtel had a requirement to move a particular type or a piece of equipment in--not Bechtel. I'll use a different one. If one of our other contractors had a requirement to move equipment or to warehouse boxes, AFCAP will provide warehouse space. An example of this is medicine. We were moving a significant amount of medicine into the area prior to the war. AFCAP was able to provide stable temperature storage space for medicines. So that's one of the things they've done. Another is they provided trucking for bottled water during the early stages of the post-conflict. They're the people, the military euphemism is the "go to" guy. If we've got stuff that has to go to Point A to Point B, we turn around to AFCAP and say can you move this for us. MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] I just want to add that AFCAP also has an agreement with our Office of OFDA to provide support for them in certain circumstances, and again this is anywhere in the world. We have two different mechanisms that we're working with them on. MR. SAMPLER: For the webcast participants, her response was just that AFCAP has a similar arrangement with DART to provide emergency response, and now they're also doing it for the Reconstruction Team as well. Do you have a-- QUESTION: [Off microphone.] I'm sorry. We heard an acronym we don't know. What is OFDA? MR. SAMPLER: Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. That's the office within USAID that managers the DART, the Disaster Assistance Response Team. Sir? QUESTION: I work for a company, we do actually project substations, basically substations, electrical substations. Recently, we are presently doing projects for USAID in Egypt, substations, and it's a "turn key"--engineer, procure and construct. In that, we follow the USAID regulations. That means procuring the equipment and services which originate in the United States and conform to your conditions. Do the same rules apply to Bechtel when they are sending RFPs to the subcontracts in that contract? That means it has to be U.S. companies with the products and services, complying to the USAID regulations which are valid for other USAID projects. MR. SAMPLER: Christine, you might as well take a chair up here. I think you're going to be on the spot. I heard two questions; one being does it have to be U.S. companies as subs, and I think that's been addressed. It does not. But then the second one, do I understand correctly, you're asking do those subs have to use products that were made in the U.S. if they're available? QUESTION: [Off microphone.] Products and services. MS. LYONS: The short answer is, no, that they don't have to use U.S. equipment. You have to understand that part of this is reconstructing. We're not trying to rebuild or go in and change what we find there. One of the hardest things about this whole contract and process was the fact that we didn't know what was going to need to be done because we didn't know what was going to be blown up or damaged. We're not trying to build a new Iraq infrastructurewise. We're looking at trying to bring it back to services that were basically pre-1991, with the available resources that we have. That means that if, during the course of the assessments, if they find that they would have to, it would be better to and less expensive, rather than to change a whole electrical plant, but that some certain parts were needed to make this plant a more viable, and more productive and more efficient plant to run, then that's what we would look at, is just providing the spare parts and the technicians, if necessary. In the case of water, we did know, from the outset, that the South was going to present a particular problem to us because of the fact that there were swamplands that were drained, and the water was already a problem. And so we were looking at possibly pipeline--trucking in bottled water from Jordan. I think the military was able to establish a water pipeline from Kuwait to some parts in Southern Iraq. But basically we're--and I did have one question for you. Do you have a contract with USAID or do you have a contract with the Egyptian Government? QUESTION: [Off microphone.] We have with the Egyptian Government. MS. LYONS: Okay, because, see-- QUESTION: [Off microphone.] But funded by AID. MS. LYONS: Right. See, that's a whole different process. Basically, we call that host country contracting, and the Egyptian Government uses their procurement regulations, and USAID has certain required clauses that goes into those contracts and solicitations. We, on the other hand, follow the Federal Acquisition Regulations, as supplemented by the USAID Acquisition Regulations. Does that answer your question? QUESTION: [Off microphone.] You answered it. MR. SAMPLER: Yes, sir? QUESTION: Jim Regan, IBC, again. To go back to an earlier question, and with regard to the $80-billion war supplemental, after those funds are disbursed, do you contemplate an international donors' conference, ala the for Afghanistan in Tokyo? And, if so, how will you coordinate, particularly on projects, some of the large infrastructure projects that will have started under the current program with any World Bank or UNDP project? MR. SAMPLER: Jim Kunder stuck his head in, and he would be able to address that question much better. He's Wendy's principal deputy, a deputy assistant administrator. I will take a very gentle stab at it. First of all, we won't wait for the current supplemental to run out before we look for other funding streams and other resources and before a donors' conference is convened--two separate animals. The supplemental has to do with U.S. Government funds that the U.S. Government spends to execute U.S. policies. The donors' conference will be much broader, as it was for Afghanistan, and I can't tell you what the status of those diplomatic efforts are, but I'm fairly certain that there will be a donors' conference in the not-too-distant future. That follows naturally. In terms of coordination, you've asked a question at a very interesting time in the process. Offices that were in Kuwait City, and Amman, and other places in the region are now beginning to either move or plan a move into Baghdad because, as was the case in Afghanistan, the reconstruction effort for Iraq should be focused on the capital of Iraq and operating from the capital of Iraq. So I think, in the next few weeks, you'll see the international community in Baghdad beginning to emerge from the ether, so to speak, and you'll see coordination mechanisms set up in Baghdad for the reconstruction effort which will move outward from there, so that the center of gravity will become Baghdad, just as prior to the war it was Kuwait City. The Humanitarian Information Center and there was a Humanitarian Operations Center, those things will all begin to converge on Baghdad, and the deconfliction and coordination among the various national and international players will be done in Baghdad. Specifically, UNOCHA, typically--U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance--typically does an excellent job of facilitating meetings where various, not at the donors' level, but more at the operational level, where the people who are tracking and executing these kinds of reconstruction missions meet to talk about what we're doing now and what we'll be doing in the future and to coordinate and deconflict those efforts. Darrel, have I plagiarized or misspoke? OCHA will have a role? MR. O'REILLY: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.] MR. SAMPLER: Did that answer your question? Another question. Yes, sir? QUESTION: My name is Tariq Sadr [ph] with Infocom Technology, Patterson, New Jersey. We have been doing work with USAID in Egypt for a master plan for infrastructure and telecommunication, and I do hope the electrical power system I assume there will be similar things, more of a blueprint for the different technology in the business. My question being small business, and specifically a Hub Zone in Patterson, where the small business would fit in that framework, the percentage of money that will go to the American firms. Are we going to go and look also at small percentage that goes to the small business with all their classifications? MR. SAMPLER: The general response to that is that the guidelines given to contractors, you've already heard. Because of the urgency and the nature of the emergency that we're dealing with in Iraq, our Office of Procurement has given very specific, but fairly broad guidelines, to how contractors must respond. I don't know a specific response. I don't now of any requirement for them to report on HUD engagement or small business engagement. Is there-- MS. LYONS: Because this contract is being performed outside of the United States, there is no legal requirement, per the FAR, to have any kind of subcontracting plan. MR. SAMPLER: Yes, sir? QUESTION: You mentioned several times bottled water and the theater of logistics support. It talked about provisioning for up to 5 million people over a 3-month period. What is the current status of buying bottled water? The reason I specifically mention that--because I live in the Middle East--it's costing about 50 cents a liter to put bottled water into Iraq. MR. SAMPLER: I cannot tell you what the current status is right now. But, again, if you would like a specific answer, if you'll leave an e-mail address or a phone number with Patrick Brady, I will get you a response today. I will say that the notion of bottled water was, again, it goes back to the early days of the planning process when our constraints at that point were how do we stop the bleeding? How do we make sure people have water? And bottled water is something that we knew we could deliver. Part of the delivery plans involved things as robust as flying it in on military aircraft and dropping it off at landing strips for further distribution. We didn't know what we would run into immediately post-conflict in Iraq, and bottled water was something that didn't require any construction, it didn't really require an awful lot of area security to be able to import or ship in and then distribute. So bottled water was designed as a stop-gap measure. You will not or you should not, and I don't think you will, see USAID providing bottled water as an ongoing project. It's just for those places where, for example, we can't truck water in or we cannot get water piped in. I know that in Afghanistan there were some, even well after we thought we would be doing bottled water, the international community was providing bottled water to several specific small communities because, due to mud slides and restricted access, there was no way to get potable water to those communities. And while the bottled water was being provided, arrangements were made, through an NGO, to drill a new well, which would provide them with a continuing supply. Again, the bifurcation of AID is the emergency response, which is the DART focus, and that's primarily where bottled water comes in, and then the longer term response to chronic needs, which is the reconstruction and development. Reconstruction and development is intended to provide systems of water delivery, not bottled water. Yes, sir? QUESTION: I'm John Hardesty with Amron International Corporation. Has USAID provided any of the primes-- Bechtel or whoever--with any instructions or guidance as to whether they can deviate from specific RFPs, specs? In other words, looking at a product, Bechtel or anyone else, may be seeking to source, if a company comes in and says, well, we can give that product, but with certain different specifications which would make it a better or, considering the conditions out there, provide better service, is there any guidance that USAID has given or any latitude that they've given to these primes to deviate from specs? MR. SAMPLER: Christine is the point--to use Bechtel as an example, if Bechtel wanted to deviate from the specifications within their contract, that would have to go to Christine The cognizant technical officer is the person who interacts on a regular basis with these contractors to make sure that they are adhering to the specific instructions or the specific requirements of their contract. But, certainly, if a contractor has a better idea or they've built a better mousetrap or you've built a better mousetrap that you'd like to offer to them, that's something that a contractor can have modified if it's appropriate, and if USAID feels it's appropriate, that can be accomplished. They're not locked in for 18 months to what we agreed to six months ago. Does that answer your question? QUESTION: [Off microphone.] So in other words it would come through Christine. MR. SAMPLER: It would have to come through Christine, yes. MS. LYONS: If I could add. MR. SAMPLER: Yes, please. MS. LYONS: I've got to go back to what I said earlier about the assessment process because that is a very critical process. Our contract doesn't have that level of specificity in it, that's the first thing. Basically, we said irrigation systems, and wastewater management facilities and plants. And so they're out there now looking at, and fielding the team people out to start--they've already started doing some assessments. They started doing some of the work in some of the areas, but the contract itself did not have that level of specificity. We had like a thousand kilometers of roads, up to a thousand kilometers of roads, because, again, we didn't know what was going to need to be done when we were coming up with the statement of work and soliciting the proposals. But that part will come up when these assessments are done. They will be presenting back to the USAID Kuwait, as well as the contracting officer, along with their recommendations for implementation, and then the USAID mission will decide what, because we have only a finite amount of money, what the priorities would be. So we just have like it's up to, like I said, a thousand kilometers of roads, up to ten hospitals, up to five airports, of which two are international. The only port that we have is the Um Qasr port, but we had an order of magnitude because we didn't know. MR. SAMPLER: I will follow on with one example of where I know that's already being considered, and it has to do with the port at Um Qasr. Stevedoring Services of America has the contract to assess and then manage the ports for the immediate future, and there is a device called a Vac-U-Vator, which my college education did not include any explanation, but it apparently is what sucks the grain out of a ship and puts it into rail cars or whatever. The Vac-U-Vators in Iraq are apparently destroyed, and someone has--and the contract says you will replace the Vac-U-Vators, and the issue is do we replace them with Vac-U-Vators just like the ones that were destroyed or there are some better, newer models, different technology, different ways of getting that grain from Point A to Point B, and those are certainly being considered. The question becomes one of appropriate technology, and this is something graduate schools all over the country debate on a regular basis, what is appropriate technology? Do you go to the latest state-of-the-art for a port in Iraq, where everything else is circa 1970 or '80 or do you go something mid-range? And those questions, again, that's why Christine is the choke point to make sure that the technology that goes in is appropriate. And if Christine needs assistance, the John Wilsons and the other people in this building provide the substantive expertise that help determine what the appropriate level of technology for replacement might be. Actually, let's have somebody that hasn't had a question yet. Sir? QUESTION: Mr. Sampler, my name is Diego Suarez, and I am with Inter-American Technologies. We design and manufacture agricultural and construction equipment, including some water supply-type products. I wanted to know will there be a list of the contact persons for the participants that are in this group here? And, also, is there a Bechtel representative here today? MR. SAMPLER: Let me take the second question first. Is there anyone here from Bechtel that has the courage to raise your hand at this point? [Laughter.] MR. SAMPLER: To answer your question, I don't know that there's been a policy decision. The folks that RSVP'd to attend, there was not an explicit question of would you be willing to have your name and e-mail address shared with the group. So we certainly won't be posting anything on the Internet. Let me take a few more questions, and approach me at the end, and we'll maybe have thought of a way that we can facilitate that. QUESTION: Hi. My name is Francis Cook from the Valard Group. A couple of procedural questions, if I might. When these assessments are finished, do you anticipate that they will only be delivered to USAID Kuwait or will they perhaps be shared at these Bechtel regional conferences or put on your Washington website? And the second--so we'll know actually what's going to be required in this very generously worded contract--and, secondly, have the U.S. military or anybody else told you what their estimation is of when comms will really be up and functioning well in Baghdad? Because as you've just mentioned, all of the USAID offices will be moving to Baghdad and the ultimate decisions on parceling out the contracts will be made there. So there's going to be a big temptation for a lot of people in this room to have offices in Baghdad, but there's no point in going if the phones and the e-mail and so forth aren't working. So can you give us a guesstimate on when Baghdad will be fully operational? MR. SAMPLER: Great questions. Well, when will comms be up and running in Baghdad? I will say that they're up and running now, in a limited fashion, and that's people are using Iridium and Thuraya phones, exclusively. Our contact with Lew Lucke is that. Institutional presences in Baghdad have sat up either VSAT terminal, so they have satellite data transmission capability, to include e-mail, or WEBSAT. WEBSAT is a mid-size Irish firm that provides a limited bandwidth Internet and voice transmission. So we haven't discovered, really since Afghanistan, there hasn't been a problem with setting up an office in a devastated or technologically challenged capital, such as Kabul or Baghdad. So I don't think comms is necessarily an issue. What is an issue is a telephone directory. If you set up an office in Baghdad, but you don't know how to reach, there's no interconnectivity, and there's no central person publishing a directory of service providers, there is no Chamber of Commerce, there are none of those--the connective tissue for the international community is not present yet. So, I agree, the time is probably not quite right, but I would guess that now is the time to begin planning and mobilizing because I think certainly six months from now would be too late. So somewhere between 2 days and 180 days is the appropriate time. In terms of communication being up in Baghdad, telecommunications is a thorny issue, and not the purview here, but there will be some rudimentary telecommunications for first responders, the international assistance community, and the Iraqi political apparatus very quickly. The Department of Defense is considering that as a military issue. That's an issue of priority to the military, and to Jay Garner, and the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. So as quickly as the security situation allows that to be done, it will be done. Now, you asked another question about the assessments and will the assessments be made public. The assessments are a requirement of the contracts. We have received the SSA assessment already. To my knowledge, there are no plans to make that public at all. I have noted that down as a question to be addressed. If you will, again, give Patrick the question, we'll try and--Christine, is there an obligation or something that prevents us from making those public or sharing those? MS. LYONS: No, it's not a public document. It's basically they're just down doing the ground-truthing and seeing what's happened out and then making recommendations to USAID. And then based on what the priorities are, how much money it's going to cost, the estimated costs, how much money we have, USAID will decide whether or not to go forward with the recommendation or not. So, I mean, we're calling them assessments, it's a ground-truthing going out to the sites, and then you have to understand that some of the areas may not be available to the contractors--and this is all of the contractors--to go into that area to do the type of assessment that needs to be done, but this will be done per sector in the areas that are permissive for the contractors to go into. But to answer your question, no, it won't be a public document, it won't be published on the website. It's not a public document. It's basically a recommendation based on what's been found on the ground. I do know I have a diver going down into the Port of Um Qasr in a full dive suit to see what's down there and see how much dredging and stuff is going to need to be done. Once they come back up and come in with their report, then we'll know what we need to do, so that we can get the vessels in. MR. SAMPLER: I do think, if you're interested in that information, the way to go is through the prime contractors. If, for example, SSA has done an assessment of the port, you could speak with SSA and say we'd like to make recommendations or offerings and ask them to share it with you or to talk about what their needs are, in terms of the port. QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.] MR. SAMPLER: Instead of--yes, again, the USAID Baghdad office would have me drawn and quartered if I recommended or directed phone calls to their office. They are literally at this point working from a Thuraya phone. They have an office of--well, the Baghdad has got less than two dozen people. For at least the immediate future, the point of contact needs to be the technical staff here. We've set up mirror staffs specifically for that purpose. Jim Bell and Jim Guy are capable, competent engineers who will terminate traffic here in Washington and then make sure that it goes to their counterpart in Baghdad. Please? QUESTION: My name is Borut Repansek, and I'm economic counselor from the Embassy of Slovenia. I would like to ask you a question which I'm faced with for the last couple of days. I have a couple of companies who had been working in Iraq years ago, when this was still somehow prosperous country, so to speak. These companies claim they would be excellent not prime contractors, but subcontractors, and of course I directed them to the Bechtel web page. Of course, they are getting back to me like we cannot register or they say we're registered, but we don't think anything would happen. On the other side, they have people, they have human capital who knows Iraq, who was there many, many years ago, but still knows at that time how it looks like to work there. The question I'm faced with, what can we do just that we get on the radar screen of prime contractors? Because there will be tens of thousands of them. MR. SAMPLER: The point is very well made. Ambassador Chamberlin and Andrew Natsios have had a number of bilateral meetings with representations from embassies who had, in some cases, entire office establishments in Iraq, prior to the conflict, and they quite rightly know that there's an untapped capacity there. Unfortunately, the venue for executing or realizing and using that capacity has to be through Bechtel. It's inappropriate, for reasons that should be fairly obvious, for us to go to Bechtel and say we want to draw to your attention these three companies. However, if your firms have the capacities that you talk about and the human capital that you talk about, they should be able to reflect that in whatever they exchange with Bechtel, and I would think that their efforts should be directed to Bechtel and to gaining the attention of Bechtel. Beyond that, I don't know what advice to offer. QUESTION: Thank you. MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] You may want to look into that May 15th or May 13th---15th and 16th forums. QUESTION: Thank you very much. MR. SAMPLER: Sir? QUESTION: Hi. To follow up on that question, Robert Jenner [ph], I work with a Polish company. The 50-percent possibility of subcontracting to foreign companies, is this cumulative or this is piece-by-piece? MR. SAMPLER: The statement was made that up to 50 percent of the subcontractors, and it was a very loose statement-- QUESTION: Of course. MR. SAMPLER: --that up to 50 percent might go to subcontractors. The next day the clarification was up to 50 percent also means it could be 10 percent, it could be 49 percent, it could be 2 percent. Are you asking specifically is one contractor limited to-- QUESTION: No, because I would imagine that the entire contract would be divided into many bits and pieces, right? MR. SAMPLER: Yes. QUESTION: So this 50 percent or 10 percent could be loosely applicable to all of those bits and pieces, right? MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] I'm not sure exactly what the question was, but I can tell you--let me answer the question. It's called Works in Place, self-perform. The contractual requirement is 10 percent of the work is to be self-performed by the prime. That means that up to 90 percent can be subcontracted out. So I'm not sure where the 50 percent came from. To whom these are subcontracted to, again, the authorized Geographic Code is 899, Free World, excluding those countries that I mentioned earlier. QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.] MS. LYONS: Our USAID Geographic Code 899. QUESTION: [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.] MS. LYONS: No, not 941--899, although we were authorized 935, but 935 includes the cooperating countries, which we're not authorized to use, so that's why it's 899. MR. SAMPLER: Sir? QUESTION: Brad Johnson with RMA. I understand the U.S. Government provided insurance to Bechtel for certain risk associated with operating in Iraq because it couldn't obtain commercial insurance. Will that government insurance transfer to subcontractors, and will it be a long-term arrangement after the 18-month contract expires? MR. SAMPLER: Well, the one part of that I can answer is it won't go beyond the 18 months, at least not at this point. You're asking the wrong venue for questions about the insurance. The insurance issue was one of indemnification, and it was to provide protection against a catastrophic accident, in terms--they're digging a trench for water, and they disturb a chemical munition, and who's responsible for the damage that causes? But you're asking the wrong people. We'll have to defer that question to a more appropriate venue. MS. LYONS: I can answer part of that. MR. SAMPLER: Okay. MS. LYONS: The first part that he said was correct. This is only for 18 months. The rationale for doing that is because there is no commercial insurance available that would provide the coverage that we need or that the contractor would need for this, particularly for nuclear, chemical, and biologics and unexploded ordnances. And basically we're not providing any money at this point, but in the event that there is a catastrophic accident, something happens, that the U.S. Government would field any kind of litigations, instead of having the contractor do it directly. In [?], we won't have to use it, but it's not costing anyone anything at this point. In the event, and we have had some conversations with AIG, in the event that this--and, by the way, it wasn't only Bechtel that could not find it. There was no other company or firm that could find it either. In the event that such insurance does become available at a reasonable price, we do have a provision in the contract that they would come to us and request our permission to purchase this insurance. But just to give you a kind of order of magnitude, just for general liability insurance, one company found someone, and this did not require what we call the NBCs, the nuclear, biological and chemicals or the UXOs, the unexploded ordnance, but just general liabilities like workmen's compensation or war hazards compensations for individuals, but the general liability they wanted for $5 million worth of coverage, it was $1 million in premium. Thank you very much. So we did manage to save the U.S. taxpayers right now a lot of money. QUESTION: [Off microphone.] But the coverage will transfer to subcontractors? MS. LYONS: I'm not sure, but it is only for the one contract, and it's only for the 18 months. I'll have to double check on that. MR. SAMPLER: I'd encourage you to talk to Bechtel. MS. LYONS: No, they don't--because I have the authority. I can look at it. MR. SAMPLER: Yes, sir? QUESTION: [?] Berrera [ph] from PEPCO, Inc., Washington, D.C. From the fact sheet that you gave us, I find that liters per capita per day was 350 prior to 1990s and then you say it has come down to 150. Now, according to the design criteria of Asian Development Bank, it is 120 for households LPCD, and 60 for standpipes. So my question is, when the engineers are designing, are you getting back to the pre-1990s and giving 350 or you designing for the exact requirements? One hundred and twenty may be a little too low for those countries, but still, if you are giving up to 350, that may be too excessive, and then there will be a time where people will have to pay for it. I mean, that is the ideal scenario. So my question is whether are you getting back to a system that was already there or are you thinking of the right system? And then there is also going to be water losses. The 350 may be the growth, and then there may be terrible water losses. So then are you correcting it at the time of reconstruction? And then also there are public information campaigns that may be necessary to get the people to conserve water. There may be a lot wasted. So are you addressing this? I just want to find out whether you are addressing all of those. Thank you. MR. SAMPLER: Those are great questions. I'll start with the last one first. There is an office within USAID, it's called the Office of Transitional Initiatives, OTI, and they do a lot of work in media campaigns, specifically public information campaigns. They've done things such as voter education before elections, human rights education post-conflict, and in Iraq, their first initiative was to do public information campaigns to combat reprisals, to prevent revenge killings or revenge attacks and to try and prevent looting. I do know that they're working on public education campaigns in consultation with other U.S. Government agencies. There are a lot of other players involved in these kinds of issues, not just AID. So to address your question very directly, we are working on or we are engaged in planning the public information campaigns for things like conserving water. Now, in terms of the "as builts," as these engineers start working on systems, I don't know the answer right now for what the design capacity is going to be. What I'll tell you is it's a little premature. What they're working on now is still emergency water supplies, making sure that the population writ large has access to some amount of potable water. Right now they're not measuring it in liters per household, they're measuring it in buckets per person because they literally have to trundle themselves to a standpipe and fill a bucket. If you would like a specific answer, whether the USAID will build to the 330 pre-'91 capacity or the sphere standard or the more appropriate standard, I'd be happy to try to provide it, unless, John, do you have a--Jim? MR. : Thank you for your question. Secondly, it's a good one as well. I think really it's complicated, in the sense of what standards are we going to go to and what is it going to cost, and I think it has to involve the assessments that are being done, and certainly it will meet minimum standards; what is it going to cost and who's going to pay for it, operations and maintenance costs, was that standard earlier, something that was subsidized by the municipal government, by the national government? We don't have the information or I don't have the information to that. So, certainly, those factors are going to come into it. Some of your other questions we certainly anticipate the municipal water authority being involved with that in Baghdad, either the ministry, certainly, or the government has a role to play in terms of what standards do they want. If we're going to meet that 330, and we don't know right now, we're seeing they're up about 70 in some areas, less than half or about half of what they had before. But those answers are out in the future, and they're definitely going to be ones that we're going to all have to grapple with, and they're not going to be easy to solve. Thank you. MR. SAMPLER: We're still discussing the question from the gentleman who wanted to have a way to do a list serve so you could share e-mails without violating anyone's privacy. At the end of this, I'll stand up and say something brilliant about how we're going to do that. [Laughter.] MR. SAMPLER: I also want to just draw your attention, we've got about nine minutes left. In the interest of your time, and the facilities, we do have to vacate pretty closely to 11:30. So we've got about nine or ten minutes left. Yes, sir? QUESTION: Hi, Chris Pereen [ph] from Chemonics International. This is a question that might be best for John Wilson. Are these prime contracts going to be or are these programs going to be required to use the AID's environmental requirements, the Reg 216 requirements, and is that explicit in the contracts, the ones that will have activities that affect infrastructure and that type of thing? MR. SAMPLER: John, do you want to-- MR. WILSON: USAID has specific environmental regulations that it abides by. With Christine's help, we have decided to voluntary apply the environmental regulations to the programs in Iraq, although it is sort of a unique situation. We felt that these would help make sure that the programs were environmentally sound and sustainable over the long term. I will be meeting with Bechtel to discuss the process in the next couple of days. Frankly, engineering firms are very comfortable with applying environmental impact assessment procedures. It basically helps to identify the mitigations that are built into the implementation of the program. So the decision is, yes, we will apply AID's environmental procedures voluntarily. MS. LYONS: Let me just add something to that. I'm also adding a clause that deals with the preservation of cultural, archeological and historical artifacts and sites because that's a requirement that has just recently surfaced from certain individuals. So I'm adding that clause to the contract. MR. SAMPLER: Yes, sir? And then I'll take yours. QUESTION: I'm Jack Head with North American Energy Services. We provide O&M contracting services for power plants, and water treatment plants, and things like that over the world, but only to the private sector. As a potential subcontractor to Bechtel, under their reconstruction contract, do we need to be prequalified or are there any requirements to be prequalified as a, under USAID's rules and requirements? MR. SAMPLER: No. MS. LYONS: No. MR. SAMPLER: Christine said, no. Yes, sir, and then yours again. QUESTION: My name is Robert Wagner, I'm from a company called ROCCO [ph] International in Spokane, Washington. We do customized heavy equipment for mining and construction, including canal systems. As I understand it, under the contracts that have been let so far, the people in the field are doing assessments now, and those assessments will be returned to you, you'll concur in some sort of scope of work; is that right? MS. LYONS: [Off microphone.] Implementation plan. QUESTION: Will that implementation plan be issued as an RFQ or an IFB or will it be public information in any way? MR. SAMPLER: The assessments are coming back in, and they identify specific tasks. For example, SSA has said, to make Um Qasr Port operational, we need to execute the following hundred subtasks. Those will not be publicly put out. Again, that's a document that USAID will digest, and then, working with the contractors, identify which ones will be addressed and prioritize. Some of them may be stricken. It's not necessarily something that's-- QUESTION: My question leads to how a subcontractor will arrive at a scope of work to identify-- MR. SAMPLER: I would think the RFPs would come from the primes. I mean, Bechtel will say we need someone who can come in and do such and such for us. QUESTION: So they'll write specs and issues, some sort of RFQ, IFB, RFP, something like that? MR. SAMPLER: Yes, not from USAID, though, but through the prime contractors, yes. QUESTION: Will USAID have any oversight of the specs? MR. SAMPLER: We will see the subtask, as it's defined in the assessment, and then we'll concur on that. We'll say, yes, we do need to replace those Vac-U-Vators with Vac-U-Vators that have a capacity of "X" tons per hour. So we'll identify what we want to have done. Is that the question that you're asking? QUESTION: That's part of it. I think my question goes to how much input USAID may have over scope of work that's given to subs for bids, that sort of thing. MS. LYONS: Under the infrastructure reconstruction or the contract or the MOAC, after the implementation plan is reviewed and whatever is approved by USAID is approved, then the contractors are expected to go out and come in with a detailed cost estimate in order to accomplish this work. This, under this particular IQC, would result in them then submitting in a request for a job order, and we would authorize that. But they are basically going to be providing us with very specific details as to what it is. I mean, it may be multiple subcontracts under one job order, depending on how broad the individual job order is. So it'll be the assessments, then implementation plan, and then, in between implementation plan, it'll get to job orders. It's actually where the job orders come in, where they're actually now told to go forth and produce whatever it is that's in their job order, where they'll start looking at who can do it and how they're going to do it. They are supposed to be providing us with some information as to how they intend to do it. Any subcontracts are always subject to FAR Part 44 and FAR Clause 52244-7, which is in the contract. QUESTION: Thank you. MR. SAMPLER: I've gotten the indication that we've run out of time. So what I'd like to do is I had promised that I would address this issue of a mailing list. I think what we will do is put a spot-- MR. : [Off microphone.] [Inaudible.] MR. SAMPLER: Oh, brilliant. What he's just said is--how do you want to collect the e-mail addresses? MR. : [Off microphone.] We'll set up a website. MR. SAMPLER: Brilliant minds think alike. What I was going to suggest is continue over the next week or so to look at the website where you registered for this workshop or this conference and watch for a button that addresses the issue of a list serve. That will allow us to include people who wish to be included, but we won't violate anyone's privacy by publishing your e-mail address without your proactively putting your name on that list serve. Let me conclude by thanking you all for participating, as well as the people who are participating by webcast. I hope what you got from this is a clear understanding that USAID doesn't have any one person who knows all these answers, but we do have an awful lot of people who are working very hard to keep themselves educated on their aspect. Christine is our representative for contracts issues, and I think she's done an admirable job of addressing your questions. If you have specific questions for a contract, I encourage you to approach the prime contractor with those queries. I'll draw your attention to the Bechtel workshops. We will put that information on our web page as well, so you can find it there, and thank you again for participating today.
Last updated: Wednesday, 28-Mar-2007 11:22:57 EDT To view PDF files, download |
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