Corporate Carve – Up A4

Description

This report analyses the role of UK corporations in post-Saddam Iraq. To date, we have uncovered evidence for about £1.1bn worth of contracts, from the US and UK reconstruction budget, and from the Iraqi ministries.

This UK figure is certain to be an understatement, as the value of several large contracts is not known. These include the printing of the new Iraqi Dinar by De La Rue and Datasat’s ‘major telecomms contract’, plus the money that successful security forms such as Hart, AK Group and Olive have made. It is also hard to gauge the revenue and influence that the banks HSBC and Standard Chartered have gained through their operations in Iraq.

The real UK total is certain to be far behind the US corporate Iraq profits; the latest Haliburton/KBR military contract alone is worth about £2.85bn.

However, UK corporations are playing a key role in two sectors: consulting (especially privatisation support) and private security, including private military companies. See the sections ‘Consultants: creating a new Iraq’ and ‘Bodies of armed men’ for more on these areas. The UK government, and British-based trade associations, have also played a key role in facilitating corporate access to Iraq’s markets, services and resources; see section ‘Iraq wasn’t sold in a day.’

From 2006