does "privatizing" really mean, open for graft and fraud? Confirming all of our worst suspicions, seems like this is the case. In fact historically, states and municipalites have been open to corruption especially at the points where contracts and franchises are let, bid, opened, etc.
if one made a database of all of the politicians convicted for fraud or corruption, and exactly what they were convicted of, it seems to me that the vast majority would fall under graft, related to contracts.
Throughout the Republican Revolution, we have been subject to the mantra that "privatizing government functions will save money,"
Anyone who contracts out the governments business knows that this is only the case to the extent that there is adaquate oversight.
In the case of Iraq and many others, not only was no money saved, but the money which was spent failed to even complete the jobs which it was expended for.

'A free-fraud zone': "Tuesday's guilty plea by an American businessman to being part of a massive bribery and bid-rigging scheme run by members of the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq confirmed the worst fears about that privatized dud of a program.
'There was no oversight anywhere near them,' said the inspector general who broke the case, which involved $8.6 million in contracts, $2 million in bribes and several phony companies. 'They considered it a free-fraud zone.' "

The worst example is to contrast the health clinics and electrical plants being built for the Iraqui citizens, with the un-holy expenditures and special security measures being taken to construct the new American Embassy in Iraq. Chalmers Johnson's Sorrows of Empire coming to fruition before our eyes.
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog: Guess which Iraq reconstruction project is on time and on budget?
The $592 million facility is being built inside the heavily fortified Green Zone by 900 non-Iraqi foreign workers who are housed nearby and under the supervision of a Kuwaiti contractor, according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Construction materials have been stockpiled to avoid the dangers and delays on Iraq's roads.

"We are confident the embassy will be completed according to schedule (by June 2007) and on budget," said Justin Higgins, a State Department spokesman

And Guess which newspaper this notice appeared in?
NYT? Nope, WaPO? Nope, it was USA Today. Only.