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Laguna Pueblo-owned contractor is 15th largest in Iraq
Top contactors in Iraq
According to an analysis of Iraq contracts between 2004 and 2006:
• The largest U.S. contractor in Iraq, KBR, a former Halliburton subsidiary, scored deals worth upward of $16 billion, more than nine times the total of the second-largest contractor.
• More than $20 billion in contracts went to foreign companies whose identities are impossible to determine.
• U.S. government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan have grown by more than 50 percent annually, from $11 billion in 2004 to more than $25 billion last year.
Source: Center for Public Integrity
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A construction company owned by Laguna Pueblo has emerged as one of the largest U.S. contractors in Iraq, with reconstruction deals worth more than $300 million since 2004.
Laguna Construction Co., which was formed in 1988 to clean up an open-pit uranium mine on pueblo land, is now the 15th-largest contractor working in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a study of government contracts and audits compiled by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group based in Washington, D.C.
Laguna Construction's contracts, which are all for work in Iraq, totaled $312.7 million between 2004 and 2006.
Representatives of the company did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday and Thursday. The pueblo Governor's Office also did not return a message.
The company is owned by the pueblo, but according to documents maintained by the state Public Regulations Commission, its board of directors includes Manuel Lujan Jr., a former Republican congressman from Albuquerque who served as secretary of the Interior under President George H.W. Bush.
All of Laguna Construction's contracts were won in an open bidding process, according to the government documents.
Laguna Construction's largest contract in Iraq was for the $31.5 million renovation of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, which is just outside Baghdad's International Zone, formerly known as the Green Zone.
The ministry is housed in a pre-Saddam palace that was heavily damaged by U.S. bombing during the 2003 invasion and was subsequently looted, according to a 2007 audit of the project by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
That audit did not report any negative findings and gave high marks to Laguna Construction's work.
"During SIGIR's site visit, the facility appeared to operate as a fully functional office building, with a capacity of more than 3,000 personnel," the audit states. "This occurred because the project design was adequate before construction (and) the contractor performed quality and detailed workmanship."
The ministry building received a 2006 National Merit Award from the Design-Build Institute of America, according to Laguna Construction's Web site.
According to the company's Web site and government documents, Laguna Construction was enrolled in a U.S. Small Business Administration program for disadvantaged businesses at the time it entered many of its Iraq contracts.
It's not clear whether the company remains in the program. An online directory of minority-owned businesses, www.sba8a.com, says Laguna Construction will graduate from the program in August 2009.
Laguna Construction entered into a "mentor-prot‚g‚" relationship in the late 1990s with Tetra Tech, a California engineering firm. That program, overseen by the government, was designed to train smaller firms for work as Department of Defense contractors.
Laguna Construction subsequently entered into a five-year, $37 million contract to remove underground storage tanks at Air Force bases in nine states, according to a published report from 2000.
That report said Laguna Construction had 70 employees, almost all of whom were pueblo members. A company profile on the Center for Public Integrity's Web site says Laguna Construction employs 75 people, most of whom belong to the pueblo.
Laguna Pueblo has about 7,000 tribal members and is 45 miles west of Albuquerque.
In addition to its headquarters at the pueblo, Laguna Construction maintains offices in Albuquerque, San Antonio, Texas, Houston, Baghdad and Amman, Jordan.
Tetra Tech is also among the largest companies working in Iraq, with contracts totaling $362 million since 2004. The two companies do not maintain a current relationship, said Talia Starky, a spokeswoman for Tetra Tech.
Lujan has remained active in Republican Party fund-raising, donating $27,000 to Republican candidates and causes since 1993, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Lujan has donated $4,250 to U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici since 1996, including $2,000 this year, and $6,000 to U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson since 2000.
Neal Kasper, Laguna Construction's president and general manager, has given $1,900 to national Republican committees since 2000, according to those records.
