BearingPoint Wins $9 Million Iraq Contract

Business, government, and IT consulting firm BearingPoint says it has won a $9 million contract to help design and implement new governmental institutions and regulations in Iraq. Under the one-year contract, awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development in its efforts to restore Iraq's private sector, BearingPoint will work with Iraqi authorities in the country's Central Bank and ministries of finance, trade, commerce, and industry.

"The size and capacity of the public sector, the relationships between key industries and government, and constraints to sector export growth may be examined as well," the firm says in a statement.

A company spokesman wasn't able to elaborate but did say that up to 100 BearingPoint employees may be on the ground in Iraq as early as Aug. 1. The spokesman says BearingPoint will work with a private security firm in an effort to ensure the safety of its employees in Iraq, where U.S. soldiers and aid workers have come under hostile fire almost daily.