Washington, Mar 04: The US army has put on hold a major contract to equip the Iraqi army and said on Wednesday it would re-evaluate 17 bids made on the 327 million dollars deal awarded to a Virginia-based company. The decision came after at least five losing firms protested to the general accounting office, the investigative arm of Congress, over the award last month of the contract to a consortium led by privately owned company Nour USA.
The losing companies claimed their bids were not properly assessed, that Nour USA had made an unrealistically low bid and that it did not have the experience to fulfill the contract.
Nour USA stands by its proposal and insists it won the deal on merit. Its chairman, Houda Farouki, is a close friend of Iraqi governing council member Ahmed Chalabi.
''We will re-evaluate all 17 offers. All of the companies have been notified that we will be doing this,'' said army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith.
Smith said she did not know how long it would take to review all the offers or what impact this would have on equipping the new Iraqi army, an important step in the handover from U S occupation to Iraqi sovereignty on June 30.
Bureau Report