Originally posted by Raider179
I thought this was exactly the kind of construction the Army Corp of Engineers or some other military construction group would do. Why the hell are we giving contracts out for stuff that can be done in-house?
From what I've seen, over the years, the Corps of Engineers designs and supervises most large contracts, and only handles actual building in war zones or other hostile areas. Anything major, in a non hostile area, will be handled by civilian contractors, with the Corps of Engineers handling design and oversight.
That being the case, and the project in question being outside the U.S., Haliburton being a preferred military contractor for decades is the most likely choice to handle the job. It is a company the military and the DoD has known and deealt with for decades. They are familiar, and the DoD considers them to be reliable and agreeable.
Military construction contracts and projects are unlike civilian jobs. Having worked on projects for the DoD and the DoVA, I can tell you the system works very differently. And the GOVERNMENT drives much of the cost up by THEIR specifications. Even the most menial of tasks are done by people who are either 5 positions above the level required for the task, or at least paid the labor scale equivalent to that level.
For example, we could not use an electrician's helper, paid $.25 an hour in 1982 on DoVA jobs. We had to use a journeyman electrician, and pay him at least $11.65 an hour. An electrician who would normally earn $14 - $18 an hour made a minimum of $24 an hour. So that getting assigned to a DoVA job was a treat reserved for the best, most reliable, company favorites. I drew DoVA jobs ANY time they came up. And we got preferential treatment when we bid because we were a known contractor they preferred to use.
