2006 consultancy overview: aid scepticism in Norway

The annual anti-corruption report of the World Bank indicates slow progress under former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.

At the close of the year, the Danish consultancy NIRAS has won a huge contract with Danida to assist six Iraqi ministries to plan their reconstruction programmes. The security risk has pushed up the price of the contract to DKK 22 million for the first year alone. This may also explain why there was only one bidder, even though the contract was put out on open international tender.

In the fall of 2006, Nepal applied for Norwegian aid funding for the design phase of the Upper Tamakoshi hydropower project (309 megawatts) in Nepal. The contract was to be carried out by a joint venture between Norconsult and the German firm Lahmeyer International.