Rory Mayberry, who is described as being an “easy-going US Army veteran” began to miss all the money that he used to make for working for Halliburton in Iraq and the private security company Danubia. He was able to get a $10,000-a-month job with the MSDS consulting company. The job would require that he work as a medic and attend to the construction crews on the work site in Baghdad. That would be no problem because Mayberry was a medical technician in the U.S. Army prior to working for Halliburton.
Immediately on the flight, as people were being told to say they were going to Dubai, he knew something was wrong. According to Mayberry, “all the workers had their passports taken away.” Mayberry also commented on the fact that the Philippines, India, and Nepal do not have a diplomatic presence in Iraq saying, “If you don’t have your passport or an embassy to go to, what do you do to get out of a bad situation? How can they go to the U.S. State Department for help if First Kuwaiti is building their embassy?” First Kuwaiti supervisors have stated that the passports are taken away because of “travel bans” involving countries the workers are coming from.
When Mayberry arrived at the embassy work site he was put off by the number of injuries and ailments that workers had and therefore, had no trouble staying busy. Not long after his arrival, according to Asia Times, “First Kuwaiti pulled him off the job after he requested an investigation of two patients who died before he arrived from what he suspected was medical malpractice. Mayberry also recommended that the health clinics be shut down because of unsanitary conditions and mismanagement. Said Mayberry:
There hadn't been any follow-up on medical care. People were walking around intoxicated on pain relievers with unwrapped wounds, and there were a lot of infections...The idea that there was any hygiene seemed ridiculous. I'm not sure they were even bathing.
Mayberry listed many concerns about the clinics stating in reports directed to the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Army, and First Kuwaiti that they were “lacking in hot water, disinfectant, hand-washing stations, properly supplied ambulances, and communication equipment” and also mentioned that “workers' medical records were in total disarray or non-existent, the beds were dirty, and the support staff hired by First Kuwaiti was poorly trained.”
Perhaps even worse is that Krongard allowed such foul practices to go on in regards to prescription drugs. The Asia Times reports:
The handling of prescription drugs especially bothered him. Many of the drugs that originated from Iraq and Kuwait were unsecured, disorganized and unintelligibly labeled, he said in one memo. He found that the medical staff frequently misdiagnosed patients. Prescription painkillers were being handed out "like a candy store ... and then people were sent back to work".
Mayberry warned that the practice could cause addiction and safety hazards. "Some were on the construction site climbing scaffolding 30 feet off the ground. I told First Kuwaiti that you don't give painkillers to people who are running machinery and working on heavy construction and they said, 'That's how we do it.'"
That may be how you do it, First Kuwaiti. And that may be what the State Department allows you to do. But on the State Department website, it clearly states that Krongard, as Inspector General is supposed to inspect “each of the approximately 260 embassies, diplomatic posts, and international broadcasting installations throughout the world, to determine whether policy goals are being achieved and whether the interests of the United States are being represented and advanced effectively.” He is also responsible for investigating “instances of fraud, waste, and mismanagement that may constitute either criminal wrongdoing or violation of Department and BBG regulations.” Clearly, he has failed and First Kuwaiti should send a letter of appreciation to Howard J. Krongard for all that he has allowed.
Less than four years ago, according to Truthout.org, First Kuwaiti “boasted $35 million in assets. Today, the firm has racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. contracts in Iraq, pushing the company well past the $1 billion mark. With 7,000 employees in Iraq, the company claims to be holding $800 million in construction and supply contracts directly with the Army for military camps, plus more than $300 million under Halliburton's multibillion dollar contract to perform military logistics for the occupation forces in Iraq.”
As stated previously, thanks to Mr. Krongard, First Kuwaiti’s “lucrative” practices have continued and allowed the company to grow tremendously and profitably plus also acquire more and more contracts.
Krongard’s links to First Kuwaiti and Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, make him guilty by association in the same way that Cheney is guilty of associating with Halliburton. In fact, Kellogg Brown & Root’s record is one quite similar to Halliburton’s record. And why expect anything different when considering the fact that KBR is a subsidiary? Anyhow, First Kuwaiti has clearly engaged in the poorest of labor-trafficking practices and has been allowed to continue with business as usual without anything more than a reprimand. Krongard has wrongfully permitted horrific labor conditions to persist on a U.S. project that he is in charge of overseeing. The taking of passports is a violation of U.S. labor-trafficking laws yet Krongard has done nothing to stop the practice.
More to come...
Sources Used
“U.S. investigates firm building embassy in Iraq.” Wall Street Journal. Published June 7, 2007 in Business News.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13258
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