CAPTIOL HILL (AP) - A House Democrat says despite construction defects in the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, federal officials signed off on the 736 million-dollar project as complete.
Congressman Henry Waxman pointed to a February independent assessment of the embassy that found "major infrastructure" problems. He says the report raises "many questions about whether the embassy is safe for occupation." Some of the problems that have riddled the complex are blamed on shoddy work by the company hired to build the project.
A senior project official certified in December that the embassy was finished.
A State Department spokesman says the agency is taking the accusations seriously and suggested that the embassy is an ongoing project. Tom Casey says the goal is to finish as soon as possible. The embassy was supposed to be complete in September at a cost of 592 million dollars. But changes to the original design have pushed the cost up an additional 144 million dollars.
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