Global Policy Forum

By Elizabeth Becker

Bush administration plans for the rebuilding of Iraq call for private American corporations to undertake much of the work, with the United Nations development agencies and other multilateral organizations sidelined, according to administration officials who have seen confidential documents outlining the plans. With the administration offering $1.5 billion in work to private companies and just $50 million to American aid groups like Save the Children, the plan will leave out many large international organizations.

Several development experts said Monday that they found the plan ambitious, particularly for an administration that campaigned against ‘‘nation building.'' According to aid officials, the contracts call for a vast reconstruction or rehabilitation of roads, municipal water systems, seaports and airports, government ministry buildings, schools and irrigation systems. Contracts will also be given to overhaul public health facilities and the primary and secondary education systems.

In line with the administration's goal of transforming Iraq into a democracy, those who have seen the plans said, American officials will also be appointed shadow ministers overseeing Iraqi bureaucrats in government ministries. The plan as outlined would be a sharp departure from reconstruction efforts in the last decade, which were largely undertaken by international peacekeeping operations.

Administration officials said it was important to give contracts to American corporations, essentially leapfrogging over the experienced development and international groups, as a way to demonstrate to the Iraqi people that the United States is a ‘‘liberator'' bringing economic prosperity and democratic institutions to their nation. Relief work will begin almost as soon as the first bombs are dropped and the military is confronted with Iraqi civilians in need of food, water, medicine and shelter, officials said.

For that reason, Jay Garner, the retired general who directs the new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in the Pentagon, arrived Monday in Kuwait. He will oversee all the civilian aid, reconstruction and governance in a postwar Iraq. Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, on Monday suspended the program under which revenues from oil sales have kept nearly three-quarters of Iraqis fed. U.S. officials said they believed they could reinvigorate it as soon as the military gained control of Iraq.

The administration is already feeling pressure to expand the list of nations and corporations taking part in what could become a $30 billion program over the next three years. Foreign officials questioned why even British companies have been excluded despite the loyalty of Prime Minister Tony Blair as a strong military and political ally of the United States. Bernard Kouchner, the former UN special representative in Kosovo and one of the few French politicians sympathetic to the idea of overthrowing Saddam Hussein, said that the Bush administration would be shortsighted if it excluded other nations, especially those from Europe.

‘‘It's impossible — impossible — to reconstruct without Europe, not just in terms of money but to push the international community toward your position,'' he said. ‘‘You have to offer them a piece of cake.'' At this stage, the only plan for including foreign corporations is as subcontractors to the American companies that win the bids, according to Ellen Yount, spokeswoman for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Frances Cook, the former American ambassador to Oman and a consultant to several Middle Eastern companies, has been lobbying the administration to include companies from Egypt and Jordan to show appreciation for their cooperation in the war effort.

‘‘They are already screaming in the Middle East — you call us corrupt, look at you giving contracts to American companies and no one else,'' Cook said. The companies that have been asked to bid on the contracts include Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton Company, which Vice President Dick Cheney once headed. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Pentagon has relied increasingly on Kellogg Brown & Root, which has built cells for detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and fed American troops in Uzbekistan. Other companies bidding for the contracts in various alliances include Louis Berger Group, Bechtel Group, Parson Corporation and Washington Group International.

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