Steve Peacock's U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor

Corruption a Hurdle for Obama 'Power Africa' Plan

Bureaucracy proposed to overcome Kenyan obstacles

President Obama’s multi-billion-dollar “Power Africa” initiative aims to double citizen access to electricity and other power sources across Sub-Saharan Africa. But it plays down the creation of a new public-private bureaucracy needed to overcome the pervasive corruption and incompetence of African governments and power utilities.

A significant portion of the Kenya-based endeavor is designed simply to administer the program. Segments include efforts to sway public and congressional opinion in favor of the initiative, according to a new planning document U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor  located through routine database research.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, will hire a contractor or contractors primarily to persuade African officials to change regulatory governance of power distribution, explains the draft Statement of Work, or SOW. A corresponding agency goal is to encourage, with contractor assistance, the escalation of private-sector investment in the region.

This regulatory and institutional strengthening and “early stage project support” will comprise 20 percent of USAID contractor efforts.

The USAID chief of party, or COP, and deputy COP, “who will be the overall managers of the contracts,” will reserve 10 percent of program funding for those government managerial functions, the document says.

The project’s overarching goal “is to remove the power constraint to economic growth and spur trade and investment, while mitigating long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trajectories,” the draft SOW says. “Power Africa will serve as a catalyst that will spark a transformation in Africa’s energy and power sectors.

“The immediate outcome will be increased supply of and access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable power for millions of Africans and the enhanced responsible and transparent management of energy resources.”

Put in simpler terms, despite Obama’s ambitious and confident proclamations about the endeavor during his recent Africa trip, the document simultaneously affirms his vision and acknowledges the great difficulties the U.S. faces in executing such reforms.

Among other factors, the weak regulatory, policy and legal environments – made worse by continent-wide “corrupt and non-transparent bidding and contractual procedures” – serve as constraints to the sort of international investment Obama wants to bring about, the SOW says.

Political instability, a lengthy history of state-owned utilities and the “fear of change and competition” likewise deter private sector project-development and investment.

Consequently, the Obama administration expects U.S. taxpayers over the next five years to commit $7 billion toward stabilizing and correcting the investment roadblocks.

Whereas USAID will provide $285 million in technical assistance to remedy what it admits are typically corrupt and often incompetent governmental bodies and utility providers, the administration will direct the remainder of the funds through other U.S. agencies.

Among the entities are the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the U.S. Trade & Development Agency – entities that the Cato Institute says should be “terminated” because they largely serve as monumental vehicles of “corporate welfare waste.”

Reminiscent of a prior scheme to sway journalists into providing favorable coverage of its Kenyan aid program – a document for which the agency abruptly blocked public access following this writer's coverage of the matter – the USAID prime contractor also must provide communications and outreach support that will be “directed at the American public, U.S. Congress” and elsewhere, the draft SOW says.

The previous communications plan spelled out in greater detail how the Obama administration sought to target specific journalists and media groups from whom it sought favors.

USAID designed the earlier “strategic plan” specifically for Kenyan aid programs, which had grown so large that the agency solicited more contractors to support projects already under way through other vendors.

The agency kept the program quiet for a year before repackaging it with decreased emphasis, according to publicly available documents, on the propaganda angle, as the Monitor recently reported.

According to the Power Africa draft SOW, the selected vendor must devote 20 percent of its efforts under the prime contract towards “institutional support” for the program coordinator’s office.

Communications and outreach activities represent just one component of institutional support, which also entails tracking and coordinating activities among “Power Africa implementers and stakeholders” such as other U.S. agencies, host country governments and non-governmental organizations, the document says.

Although USAID’s East Africa Regional Mission in Nairobi, Kenya, is home to the coordinator’s office, Power Africa also has plans for Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

This article originally was published via WND.com (July 23, 2012). Under agreement with the editor, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.

Corruption a Hurdle for Obama 'Power Africa' Plan (WND)

One of my two latest articles via WND. -- S.P.

President Obama’s multi-billion-dollar “Power Africa” initiative aims to double citizen access to electricity and other power sources across Sub-Saharan Africa. But it plays down the creation of a new public-private bureaucracy needed to overcome the pervasive corruption and incompetence of African governments and power utilities.

A significant portion of the Kenya-based endeavor is designed simply to administer the program. Segments include efforts to sway public and congressional opinion in favor of the initiative, according to a new planning document WND located through routine database research.

Continue reading at WND.com...

Sequestration-Related Cuts? Fed Spending Continues Unabated

The Obama administration recently issued warnings to contractors of potential sequestration-related spending cuts, but in the meantime federal spending continues unabated, domestically and globally.

Some of the apparently indispensable projects include a environmental public murals in Hebron and Jericho along with similarly themed summer camps and field trips for Palestinian children, alternative energy outings to Turkey, and assistance to mango growers and hotel operators in Pakistan.

The U.S. Agency for International Development said in a public notice that “due to the failure of Congress to reach a deal on balanced deficit reduction to avoid sequestration, the president on March 1, 2013, as required by law, issued a sequestration order canceling approximately $85 billion in budgetary resources across the federal government for the remainder of the federal fiscal year.”

USAID recently advised vendors that the agency “is taking every step to mitigate the effects of these cuts, but … it is likely that your company’s workforce, revenue, and planning processes may be affected.”

But that is not stopping USAID from reaching out to contractors to carry out its new $700 million global “ecological-governance” program.

The primary goal of the agency’s Restoring the Environment through Prosperity, Livelihoods and Conserving Ecosystems, or REPLACE, program is to strengthen the ability of governments and non-governmental organizations around the globe to provide climate-change mitigation and adaptation, seascape and landscape management, and other environmental and economic interventions.

Numerous other federal entities issued similar warnings via the FedBizOpps contractor database.

Despite the advisories, new projects continue to emerge while existing programs undergo expansion, from the seemingly inconsequential – such as a $79,000 U.S. Trade & Development Agency grant to send U.S. railway representatives on an exploratory mission to India – to initiatives on a multi-billion-dollar scale.

Most notable is the Department of Defense’s extended outsourcing of global counter-narcotics functions through its Counter Narco-Terrorism Program Office, or CNTPO, a potential $15 billion contract vehicle that has enriched – and will continue to enrich – Blackwater Lodge & Training Center Inc.; Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems; ARINC Engineering Services LLC; Raytheon Technical Service Company; and Northrop Grumman/TASC Inc.

The report "DoD Prepares Follow-Up to $15 Billion Global Counterdrug Contracts" continues to be one of the Monitor's most regulalry visited articles, generating consistent visits and Google search hits nearly twenty months later.

The following list of federal procurement actions represents an additional snapshot of recent contracts, requests for proposals and other solicitations, both large and small. This nation-by-nation compilation is by no means comprehensive but is designed to enlighten U.S. taxpayers about how the federal government is spending – or intends to spend – their money.

GAZA/WEST BANK

The creation of environmental-themed public murals, conducting student field-trips to “environmentally important sites” in Hebron and Jericho and holding environmental summer camps for Palestinian children are among programs that the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service intends to fund. And the USFS is procuring the services of the Palestinian Association for Child Arts and Culture to carry out these tasks for youth in the city of Hebron. The agency did not disclose the estimated cost.

Helping the Palestinian Authority to “build more effective and competent public institutions that are accountable to the public and respond to citizens’ needs” will cost $20.5 million under a contract that USAID awarded to Development Alternatives Inc.

U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor founder Steve Peacock initially broke the story on the project’s unveiling last April for WND.com.

PAKISTAN

Current efforts to improve the competitiveness of small- and medium businesses in Pakistan have been extended another 20 months, now that USAID has raised Chemonics International’s contract ceiling to $93 million. The current contract for the Pakistan Firms Project was slated to end April 15, but with a $2.5 million increase, Chemonics will continue to provide technology upgrades, skill development and other assistance to hotels, mango growers, knitted-garment manufacturers and other Pakistani enterprises through December 31, 2014.

TURKEY

Alternative-energy industry representatives are getting free hotel rooms and airfare to Turkey to explore ways to capitalize on the nation’s energy boom. The U.S. Trade & Development Agency is offering a $537,000 grant to carry out the Smart Grid Upgrades to the Teias Electricity Transmission Network Feasibility Study. According to the agency, “Turkey is facing a rapidly rising demand in the midst of its bustling economic growth. The Turkish government is consequently making a concentrated effort to explore alternative sources of energy, such as wind, hydro and geothermal power as a way of meeting this shortfall.”

Consequently, the Obama administration has decided that U.S. taxpayers should shoulder the burden of that trip to Ankara.

UNITED STATES

Under its Adult Education and Immigrant Integration project, the U.S. Department of Education awarded a $1.3 million contract to World Education Inc. of Boston to design an initiative to “reduce linguistic, academic, and employment barriers for skilled and low-skilled immigrants and refugees, and to integrate them into the U.S. workforce and professions.”

A similar version of this article first appeared via WND.com on March 18, 2013. Under agreement with WND, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.

Obama Takes Action On 'Unreliable' Power Grid – in Pakistan!

A nighttime view of the devastated barrier island towns of Bay Head and Mantoloking, N.J., whose lights normally glitter across the Barnegat Bay into Point Pleasant. With the exception of emergencey crews working in the distance (the crane in the bottom right corner sits at the site of the partially submerged Mantoloking Bridge) , that region as of this writing largely remains in darkness.

Project launched in wake of Hurricane Sandy

Less than a week after Hurricane Sandy plunged much of the mid-Atlantic region into darkness, the Obama administration unveiled a new initiative aimed at mitigating the impact of “unreliable grid power.”

Not across ravaged coastal New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, but in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

The direct beneficiary of the administration’s generosity is a publicly traded Pakistani cement and concrete producer, according to a planning document that U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located via routine database research.

The Lahore-based Pioneer Cement Limited, or PCL, requested a grant from the U.S. Trade & Development Agency, or USTDA – an independent White House entity – to fund a feasibility study of its modernization plans.

USTDA agreed, thereby requiring U.S. taxpayers to foot the bill for eco-friendly industry representatives needing international flights and hotel accommodations. The agency is offering a $770,000 grant to make it happen, Solicitation Number 2012-31033A shows.

The completed study also may come with recommendations for further financial or technical assistance to PCL, which ultimately wants to build a biomass-fired power plant as well as a waste heat recovery unit “and energy efficiency upgrades to mitigate or reduce dependence on unreliable grid power,” the document says.

Biomass, “as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms,” as defined by the Surrey, England-based Biomass Energy Center. PCL, for instance, uses residues from agricultural waste such as rice husks and wheat straw.

USTDA acknowledges that the grant-recipient Pakistani company is thriving. Indeed, the targeted facility “is equipped with two cement production lines with a total production capacity of 6,200 tons” of clinker – the primary component of cement – per day.

The agency laments, however, that “PCL’s production costs are rising, particularly in terms of fuel and power. As a result, PCL is intent on maximizing production capacity utilization, maintaining quality, and reducing its cost of production.”

Implementation of the biomass-fired power plant will help PCL “to meet the cement plant’s internal demand, with any surplus energy being sold to the National Transmission & Despatch Company,” the solicitation says.

USTDA touts itself for helping “companies create U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services for priority development projects in emerging economies.”

The agency on its website claims that last year it “identified over $2.2 billion in U.S. exports that were directly attributable to USTDA-funded activities.”

But as the Monitor reported earlier this year, sometimes those companies include multi-billion-dollar corporations such as GE, which stands to gain from USTDA-financed energy projects in Kenya and Tanzania.

The agency often pays for feasibility studies and “definitional missions” as the first steps toward the modernization of other nations’ industries – including the oil industry in places such as Libya.

USTDA has since embarked upon a separate Libyan project.

Interestingly, on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks – the very day of the al Qaida-staged attacks resulting in the deaths the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others – USTDA in a Special Notice recognized the “technical merit” of an unsolicited proposal to create Internet access points across Libya.

Benghazi and Tripoli were identified as two target cities to deploy the access points. No action – neither a contract award or project cancellation—has been announced in that particular matter.

Congress this week separately began hearings on the Benghazi attack.

This article originally was published via WND.com Nov. 14. Under agreement with the publisher, rights have reverted back to to the author, Steve Peacock.

ALSO SEE "Hurricane Sandy: Another Example of Why We Need to Invest More in America, Less Around the Globe" (COMMENTARY).

FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE U.S TRADE & DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, VISIT THE MONITOR'S USTDA PAGE.

Georgia (and Arab Royals) On My Mind (Commentary)

A private contractor will be hired by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to assess the agency's project-portfolio over five years in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia (Solicitation #SOL-114-13-000001). U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor proposes that the contractor (or, better yet, the USAID Inspector General's office) take a good look at U.S. "investments" in Georgia that are slated to benefit the United Arab Emirates. See "House Tells Russia to Get Out of Georgia, While Quietly Building Up UAE Presence" (Monitor, 09/20/2012) and "U.S.-Financed Pipeline Benefiting UAE Royal Family Moves Forward" (Monitor, 05/04/2012).

U.S. Takes Action to Reduce Energy Dependence -- in Europe

The nation faces a critical need to "overcome a number of serious problems" related to economic development and growing energy needs, particularly because of its "strong dependence on energy imports," the Obama Administration has concluded.

Consequently, it has launched a project to increase "competitiveness and energy security" while reducing "greenhouse gas emissions via greater clean energy investments" across the nation.

Across the nation of Macedonia, that is.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will devote an unspecified amount of funding for the Competitiveness through Clean Energy Investment – Industrial Management Project.

USAID acknowledged in the document  that an "important influence on Macedonian energy policy" is the country‘s objective of becoming accepted into the European Union. According to a project Statement of Work, the agency will hire a contractor over the next 3-4 years to:

(1) Recruit Macedonian industry particpation;

(2) Provide energy management and efficiency systems to selected businesses;

(3) Train various sectors in the use of such systems; and:

(4) Promote energy management across the nation by attending industry association meetings and holding workshops "to engage industry, local consultants, and the financial community."

Source document: Solicitation #SOL-165-12-000005.

Firm Run by ex-USAID Official, Exxon Engineer Gets US-Funded Libyan Industry Contract

 A company jointly led by a former Exxon researcher and a one-time U.S. government official recently secured a contract to assess potential U.S. investments into Libyan industry, specifically the power-generation sector.

The U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA), an independent White House entity, selected Energy Markets Group (EMG) to carry out a “definitional mission,” or DM, to Libya. EMG will travel to Libya, evaluate that industry segment, and craft a report for USTDA either recommending or rejecting possible “investments” of additional funds to boost Libyan modernization efforts.

EMG’s president is Ahmad Ghamarian, formerly an Exxon Research and Engineering Company staffer. Ghamarian prior to that had been a project engineer for a Tehran-based company that designs “power-generation projects for the Iranian onshore/offshore oil industry,” according to his corporate bio.

EMG founding member James B. Sullivan formerly was an associate assistant administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) during the Clinton Administration. “As such he helped develop strategy and design foreign policy for U.S. assistance programs abroad,” his bio says. “Previously, Dr. Sullivan was the Director of the USAID Office of Energy (1986-1997) (and Deputy Director 1984 -1986).”

As previously reported, the endeavor is one of four industry specific DMs that USTDA is planning for Libya.

The agency’s stated purpose behind the sector evaluations is to increase “strategic opportunities for the utilization of U.S. goods, services, and technologies as the country rebuilds its economy…”

USTDA is paying $80,000 to EMG for the Libyan DM. Although it awarded the contract May 3, the agency did not upload the award to the FedBizOpps database until today.

Source document: Contract award #TDA-CO201220065.

FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE U.S TRADE & DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, VISIT THE MONITOR'S USTDA PAGE.

FOR ADDITIONAL REPORTING ON THE U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, SEE THE MONITOR'S USAID PAGE.

ALSO SEE THE MONITOR'S LIBYA PAGE.

FOR FURTHER REGIONAL COVERAGE, VISIT OUR MIDDLE EAST PAGE AND AFRICA PAGE.

UAE Touts Helping U.S. Coalition Forces... USAID at Same Time Building Gas Pipeline Benefiting UAE

The United Arab Emirates embassy in the U.S. a little while ago bragged in a tweet that "UAE participated with US in 5 coalition actions in 20 years: Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Bosnia-Kosovo, Gulf War." U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor in response poses the question, "Does that possibly explain why the U.S. Agency for International Development is planning to build a 47 km. pipeline extension in the former Soviet republic of Georgia -- a project whose goal is to promote the UAE-owned Poti Free Industrial Zone near the Black Sea?"

Just a thought.

Related: "U.S.-Financed Pipeline Benefiting UAE Royal Family Moves Forward" (Monitor, May 4)

White House Weighs Funding Industry Modernization in Libya

This article originally was published under the title "Obama eyes rebuilding business – in AFRICA!" via WND.com. Rights have reverted back to the author (Steve Peacock)

The Obama administration is considering future funding of industry modernization ventures in Libya, and has proposed sending contractors to assess U.S. investment prospects.

Four separate “definitional missions,” or DMs, soon will be carried out by private vendors on behalf of the U.S. Trade & Development Agency, an independent White House entity.

According to planning documents that WND located via routine database research, USTDA has issued Requests for Proposals from contractors capable of identifying and evaluating industry projects that Libya’s National Transitional Council is proposing.

The USTDA-funded missions come at a time when the council is struggling to contain divisive conflicts between tribal and regional militias.

As WND.com reported last month, the NTC is threatening to use force to keep those opposing forces in check, a move seen by some as necessary to avoid fracturing the nation.

The Libyan sectors targeted for review under the new USTDA initiatives are: (1) Oil and Gas; (2) Power Generation; (3) Transportation, and: (4) Information and Communications Technology.

USTDA’s stated purpose behind the sector evaluations is to increase “strategic opportunities for the utilization of U.S. goods, services, and technologies as the country rebuilds its economy…”

The agency also says the initiatives fall within the purview of its mission to facilitate U.S. involvement in “priority development projects in emerging economies.”

Libya currently relies on oil to generate most of its electricity nationwide, “an inefficient and expensive method of power production,” the Scope of Work governing the Oil and Gas Sector DM points out.

The General Electric Company of Libya, however, recently doubled its natural gas-based power generation capacity – and estimates that the nation’s industrial and civilian gas requirements will nearly quadruple by 2020.

“A significant number of energy-focused U.S. firms have indicated their interest in working in Libya,” the SOW says, “many of whom have provided capability statements to the Commercial Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Libya and are looking for business opportunities to engage in the Libya market."

A separate document for a Power Generation Sector DM offered a nearly verbatim justification for that mission – it merely replaced the project title “Libya: Oil and Gas Sector [DM]” with “Libya: Power Generation Sector [DM].”

The only difference is a reference to utilizing U.S. companies to rebuild the country’s “traditional power generation infrastructure” and to develop “new renewable power generation capacity.”

Equally critical to Libya’s economic growth will be the “rebuilding of its vital transportation sector,” USTDA says.

The agency therefore will fund a DM to assess that industry segment. Particular emphasis will be placed on the Libyan air transport sector, “as it facilitates both its urban and petroleum industries,” the applicable documentation explains.

Obstacles remain for U.S. industry participation in rebuilding this sector, but those hurdles appear to be diminishing, it said.

USTDA acknowledged in the document that “Due to the history of [U.S. and international] sanctions, the two national airlines have only purchased Airbus aircraft” made in France. Plus, last year’s Libyan conflict “resulted in a drop of more than one million international passengers that same year compared to 2010.”

On a positive note, however, “Since the end of the conflict, all three domestic airlines and 15 international airlines have resumed service” across Libya. Additionally, Libya’s NTC has indicated that a merger and privatization of the two state-owned airlines could take place by 2013, according to USTDA.

The DM for this sector will examine opportunities for U.S. businesses in Libya’s “rapid modernization of its airports and airlines” as well in its commercial seaports, which include “many oil and natural gas terminals.”

NTC has expressed interest in crafting an “e-Libya” program – a national policy to accelerate e-commerce, e-learning, online government services, and the expansion of wireless and Internet connectivity.

USTDA therefore is embarking upon an Information and Communications Technology sector DM to evaluate these and other proposed programs and projects already under way.

“The e-Libya program has wide political support and is seen as a method to combat government corruption,” the SOW says.

Two U.S. companies – left unidentified by USTDA – already have expressed interest in Libyan projects, the document says.

USTDA typically awards contracts for post-DM endeavors – such as the development of feasibility studies – prior to providing or arranging project-specific financing. Depending upon the findings in those reports, the U.S. government directly may offer additional funds or indirectly through organizations such as the World Bank.

The due date for proposals for all four of the USTDA missions is April 20.

Air Force Fuel Supply and Storage to be Outsourced Around Globe

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) plans to outsource a chunk of its global fuel supply and storage services to industry, though the agency has not disclosed the exact magnitude of those future contracts,  U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has discovered. According to several presolicitation notices dated Dec. 5 and discovered though a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, the Monitor has learned that significant opportunities to take over such DLA operations on behalf of the U.S. Air Force are on the horizon.

DLA-Energy anticipates releasing a Request for Proposals (RFP) in about 30-60 days for "Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated (GOCO) Aviation and Ground Fuel Bulk Storage Services" in the following global facilities:

Osan Air Base, Korea (Solicitation #SP0600-12-R-0501);

Andersen Air Force Base, Guam (Solicitation #SP0600-12-R-0505);

Kadena Air Base, Japan (Solicitation #SP0600-12-R-0504);

Incirlik Air Base, Turkey (Solicitation Number #SP0600-12-R-0502);

Ramstein Air Base, Germany (Solicitation#SP0600-12-R-0509);

Lajes Field, Azores (Portugal) (Solicitation #SP0600-12-R-0510);

Misawa Air Base, Japan (Solicitation #SP0600-12-R-0503);

Domestic U.S.  sites include:

Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska (Solicitation #SP0600-12-R-0511);

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska (Solicitation #SP0600-12-R-0500); and:

Defense Fuel Support Point (DFSP), San Pedro, CA.  (Solicitation #SP060012R0517)

The solicitations stated little else other than declaring that:

The Contractor's responsibility under the resulting contract will be to operate and maintain bulk storage facility to ensure safe and accurate receipt, storage, transfer, and issue of petroleum products under their control.  The contractor will not be required to perform alongside aircraft refueling, truck deliveries, handling cryogenics, operating automated service stations, or other unrelated tasks not specified in the Performance Work Statement.

Most of the above documents indicated that DLA anticipates awarding five-year contracts beginning 2012-2013, depending on location. Additionally, the agency will hold preproposal conferences and site visits for interested contractors at the respective sites.