Washington, Oct 30: Companies awarded USD 8 billion in contracts to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan have been major campaign donors to President George W. Bush, and their executives have had important political and military connections, according to a study released today.
The study of more than 70 U.S. Companies and individual contractors turned up more than USD 500,000 in donations to the President's 2000 campaign, more than they gave collectively to any other politician over the past dozen years.
The report was released by the Centre for Public Integrity, a Washington-based research organization that produces investigative articles on special interests and ethics in government. Its staff includes journalists and researchers.
The Centre concluded that most of the 10 largest contracts went to companies that employed former high-ranking government officials, or executives with close ties to members of Congress and even the agencies awarding their contracts.
Major contracts for Iraq and Afghanistan were awarded by the Bush administration without competitive bids, because agencies said competition would have taken too much time to meet urgent needs in both countries.


``No single agency supervised the contracting process for the government,'' Centre executive director Charles Lewis said. ``This situation alone shows how susceptible the contracting system is to waste, fraud and cronyism.''
Bureau Report