Money.msn.com is reporting today that the U. S. Government has awarded Black & Veatch a no-bid contract for an electricity project in southern Afghanistan.  Last year the Government had promised a competitive bidding process on the contract.

The article reports:

“In January 2010, USAID said companies would compete for the electricity project, awarded to Black & Veatch Corp. of Overland Park, Kansas, a company that the agency earlier had chastised for big cost overruns and busted deadlines on a diesel-fueled power plant in Kabul. But the government let 10 months pass before deciding to award a contract without competitive bids, saying that it couldn’t spend more time seeking offers.

“A rival company that was interested in bidding, Symbion Power LLC of Washington, D.C., said USAID broke its promise and spent more than it should to expand electricity into war-ravaged Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan.”

I have no way of knowing whether this is sour grapes on the part of Symbion Power or if there is something underhanded about the way this was done.  One of the practices that has long been a problem within our government is the awarding of no-bid contracts to people who have in some way gained favor with an administration.  I hope that this is not an example of that process.  I would hope that Congress will put this contract on its list of things it needs to look into.