CPA steps up contract awards

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) wants to award $6 billion of the $18.4 billion that Congress appropriated for Iraq in November by June 30, according to an industry official familiar with the situation.

CPA wants to finish as many Iraqi construction and program management contracts before it turns over control to a country delegation, said Joe Draham, vice president of government relations and congressional affairs for GTSI Corp. He worked in Iraq for three months last year as a senior adviser to the authority's chief operating officer.

The Defense Department and the CPA divided the $18.4 billion into two parts: $12.4 billon in 10 contracts for construction in the areas of oil, electricity, public works, security and transportation; and $6 billion in seven contracts for program management to include building democratic institutions and buying goods and services, said Navy Rear Adm. David Nash, director of the CPA's Program Management Office, during a March 10 media briefing.

DOD and CPA officials have not determined a total dollar figure for all information technology projects in Iraq. But vendors can find IT work in all the Iraqi reconstruction contracts, Draham said.

Last month, the department and the coalition awarded all the Iraqi program management contracts and several construction contracts, including a contract worth up to $75 million to Lucent Technologies.