KABUL — Following guidelines to stimulate local business development and combat corruption, NATO has contracted with three Afghan companies owned by women to provide boots and clothing to Afghan soldiers, officials said Monday.
The contracts could cost up to $300 million, significantly less than buying the items from U.S. or other foreign firms, officials said.
The five-year deal was signed shortly before Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Afghanistan, issued new guidelines last week to govern billions of dollars of NATO contracts. Officials said Petraeus wants to ensure that contract dollars are spread beyond a select group of Afghan companies to help develop a broader sector of firms that can stimulate the local economy and compete on the international market.
The contracts with the woman-owned companies, which will provide boots, T-shirts and other clothing to 125,000 soldiers, follow the new guidelines and are an example of future deals that the NATO command would like to see, officials said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai had lobbied for the change. He argued that much of the $14 billion issued last year in NATO contracts was funneled to favored companies run by corrupt executives, who enriched themselves at the expense of the fight against the Taliban insurgency.
