COLUMN ONE : Mad Dash for a Share of Billions : In ravaged Kuwait city, businessmen scramble for reconstruction contracts. Some bring sleeping bags; for one executive, the dress code is still coat, tie and tasseled loafers.

The lobby of the Kuwait Plaza is thick with cigarette smoke. Men huddle in whispers, nervously eyeing their neighbors or feverishly fingering calculators.

In one corner, thin, bearded Ibrahim Shaheen tries to look inconspicuous.

“I have to hide,” he says, glancing sideways when a reporter finally finds him. “Everybody wants me.”

Little wonder. Shaheen, director of the Kuwait Emergency and Recovery Program, already has dished out more than $800 million in 200-odd contracts to U.S., British, Saudi and other companies for equipment and three months of emergency repairs.

And that’s small change for the mega-deals to come. Rebuilding the power plants, government buildings, universities, office buildings and other infrastructure destroyed by Iraq’s occupation army is estimated to cost at least $60 billion over the next two years.

Another $100 billion or so--no one really knows--will be spent to extinguish and cap nearly 800 burning or gushing oil wells and rebuild Kuwait’s ravaged oil industry.

The aim of the biggest construction project in history is simple. “We want to make Kuwait even better than it was before,” Shaheen says.

But the effect is a virtual gold rush in a war zone. Never mind no hot showers or restaurants, phones or faxes. And who cares about martial law and unexploded mines in the workplace?

Already, international construction, telecommunications and oil companies are literally lining up at the Saudi border, desperate to get in. They’re phoning ambassadors, imploring congressmen and sipping tea with sheiks and princes.

They’re also calling in the heavy artillery. In the last week alone, U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, British Prime Minister John Major and foreign ministers from Canada and Italy jetted in, past a burned-out control tower and two demolished commercial jets, and began lobbying for their country’s companies.

And that’s just the start. On Friday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher is expected here at the head of a group of chief executive officers. The Dutch are sending a delegation. The Philippines is sending its labor secretary to ask for some of the hundreds of thousands of expected jobs. Pakistan’s manpower chief already is here.

“Everybody wants a piece of the pie,” explained Julius (Bo) Bounds, 52, contracts chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is subcontracting $45 million of emergency work for the Kuwaiti government.

“I’ve been visited by two embassies so far,” Bounds said. “I’ve entertained a group of businessmen from Canada. And the Egyptian minister of defense just came by.”

Those few already inside Kuwait couldn’t be happier. Checking into the Carlton Hotel, which features no water and intermittent electricity for $135 a night, Steven Blake grinned with delight Monday afternoon.

“We’re the first British company to come,” said the 45-year-old engineer with Morrison Shand Ltd., a small Derbyshire company that won a $2.6-million contract to repair water and sewer systems.

“We hope it’s going to grow,” Blake said, rubbing his hands in glee. “Enormous! Billions! Billions! Enough for everybody!”

His companion, works manager Martin Kennedy, 50, said larger British construction companies, including John Laing Construction Ltd. and Taylor Woodrow Ltd., were furious to be beaten at the starting gate of the business bonanza.

“Peeved is a good word,” said Kennedy, whose company gave him a scant 12 hours’ notice before he had to jump on a London flight to the Mideast.

Another new arrival is Sonny Eskridge Jr., 53, a burly coordinator for Blount Inc., the giant general contractor of Montgomery, Ala. He and seven other Blount employees got to Kuwait on Monday to begin $6 million worth of work repairing electric transmission lines and buildings.

“We’re here to stay,” said Eskridge, who packed enough for a year. “Our organization is set for a massive rebuilding program. We’re ready to do it, we want to do it and we’re here. We’re going to try to do everything.”

Stuck at Border

First he’ll have to free 350 Blount workers and 150 truckloads of equipment stuck in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, for the last five days. Armed border guards have stopped them and hundreds of other businessmen and workers from entering Kuwait without papers that no one seems to have.

“I told them, ‘You let the Iraqis come in and tear up your country, and now we’re trying to come fix up your electricity and you won’t let us in,’ ” W. E. (Bull) Wilson, senior vice president of Blount, said Tuesday night after another unsuccessful attempt to get his men into the country. “They didn’t like that.”

Wilson and Eskridge used ingenuity to get themselves in.

“We got a letter signed by a Kuwaiti prince,” Eskridge said, “and he told us we needed to go to Khafji (on the Saudi border) and get it signed by a Saudi prince. We never found him. So we just drove in at midnight and spent the night in sleeping bags.”

At least he’s got a contract. An embarrassed friend from Irvine-based Fluor Daniel Inc., still stuck in Saudi Arabia, gave Eskridge his business card and asked him to pass it around in Kuwait, Eskridge said with a grin.

And a 44-year-old Arabic-speaking American from a major U.S. company--who arrived here exhausted at midnight Saturday after rushing nonstop from California--spent all day Monday knocking on official doors, looking for someone to say yes. No one did.

“It’s very confusing,” he said later. “A lot of people who claim they have the authority to approve and sign actually have to get authority from someone higher up. And no one has time to talk.”

The American asked that he and his company not be identified so as not to offend his Kuwaiti hosts. In terms of appearance, though, he’s anything but anonymous. In a country with no running water, he may be the only man who wears a double-breasted blue blazer, carefully knotted striped tie and freshly shined tasseled loafers.

“It’s not so bad,” he said unconvincingly of life here. “I brought plenty of tuna fish, crackers, soda pop and water.”

Other contractors congregate at the Plaza Hotel, Kuwait’s only establishment to serve hot food--invariably a mysterious brown stew. They sip $2 cups of instant coffee in the lobby and trade rumors.

“Blimey, he’s talking about the same deal we are,” one British man muttered nervously to his companion after eavesdropping on a competitor’s couch.

‘Herb of Arabia’

Two days ago, the lobby loungers were dumbstruck. Herbert Smith, a middle-aged, mild-mannered veterinarian from Virginia, suddenly whooshed through in a flowing white Arab robe and headdress.

Smith said he’s working on medical relief but declined to provide details. He’s been known as “Herb of Arabia” ever since.

Kuwait’s massive reconstruction actually got its start last November in a suite of K Street offices in Washington. There, about 40 expatriate Kuwaitis began planning the emergency repairs and long-term rebuilding they estimated their ruined country would need.

“Actually, we anticipated worse damage than was here,” said a Kuwaiti army colonel who participated in that planning. “We thought there’d be fighting in the streets.”

What they didn’t expect was the onslaught of wheeler-dealers who came knocking every day, particularly after the air war began in January and an allied victory seemed inevitable.

“In every business, you find suppliers,” the colonel said. “Then you have dealers. We got dealers for dealers for dealers. One company quoted prices 200% to 300% over list.”

Support for the war will be a key consideration for contracts, he explained. American companies will get priority, followed by British, Canadian and other allies. Germany, which sent $3 billion but no troops, will get little.

And oil-dependent Japan, which sent $1.3 billion but no encouragement? “No way!” said the colonel with a laugh.

Bechtel Group Inc. of San Francisco, the second-largest U.S. building and engineering firm, has a letter of intent to help guide reconstruction of the oil industry. The company hopes to win a contract for 4,000 employees, a spokesman has said.

Other companies that stand to profit, once long-term reconstruction contracts are let, are Fluor Daniel, Caterpillar, Jacobs Engineering, Foster-Wheeler, Morrison-Knudsen and FMC. Their stocks have soared since Kuwait’s liberation.

AT&T;, Motorola and Ericsson, the telecommunications giants, already are here. Raytheon has a $6-million contract for emergency airport repairs.

Still on the sidelines are about 150 British companies who applied for emergency contracts. So are at least 450 French, Saudi, Kuwaiti, Egyptian and other companies that submitted bids.

Financing is unclear. Once its wells are operating, Kuwait will seek a special oil production quota from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to help pay for reconstruction. It also is looking to borrow money. Given the emirate’s huge oil resources, that shouldn’t be difficult.

The U.S. Treasury, the Bank of England and Japan’s Ministry of Finance have unfrozen Kuwaiti assets, and international banks are offering loans. The World Bank has suggested technical assistance. The Gulf Community Council and the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development want to help.

The European Community is advocating a multilateral fund for the Middle East, similar to the international aid program for Eastern Europe being undertaken by 24 industrialized nations.

And Secretary of State Baker has urged the creation of a Middle East Bank, patterned along the lines of the African Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Not surprisingly, confusion is already rampant. Job specifications and bidding are non-existent, and some contractors hint darkly that bribes are opening doors and winning signatures.

If true, they’re not paying Kuwaiti money. All banks are closed, and the government has effectively canceled the use of Kuwaiti dinars because Iraq stole more than $1 billion in new currency notes during its seven-month occupation.

There are other problems too. Eskridge, the Blount coordinator, said he discovered an hour after arriving that the Saudi Cable Co. had a contract to work on the same transmission lines as his company did--but with different-sized wires.

“The Kuwaitis are letting out contracts left and right,” he says. “By the time they’re done, they may let the same contract two or three times.”

But there is progress. A thousand-yard channel was opened Tuesday into the heavily mined container port of Shuaiba. The Cattistock, a British minesweeper, and the La Salle, an American command ship, arrived leading a convoy of three water and fuel ships.

“That’s a major step,” said a U.S. official. “Once the port’s open, we can start getting supplies in.”

Slow Progress

The sheikdom’s other seaport, in Kuwait city, probably will be closed for another six to eight weeks, officials say. Cargo cranes were dynamited, berths were destroyed and numerous ships were torched and sunk.

Highway overpasses are being slowly cleared of Iraqi pillboxes, and burned tanks and trucks are being pushed to the roadside. Special civilian flights have begun flying into Kuwait International Airport, where they are met by U.S. Marines.

And Bo Bounds’ 18th-floor windows rattle every few minutes as military demolition teams touch off thousands of unexploded grenades, mines and artillery shells found in bunkers and pillboxes that line the Persian Gulf beach, a block away.

He sighs as another report arrives of contractors still stuck at the Saudi border. The U.S. ambassador, he says, will call Kuwait’s prime minister and crown prince.

“The contractors see the gravy train, and everybody’s trying to get on board,” he explains wearily.

PAYING THE COSTS

Allied contributions to the Gulf War effort, in millions of dollars

Amount Cash In-Kind* Still Promised Received Received Owed Saudi Arabia $16,839 $4,457 $1,566 $10,816 Kuwait 16,006 3,500 10 12,496 Japan 10,740 866 457 9,417 Germany 6,572 2,432 531 3,609 United Arab Emirates 3,000 870 140 1,990 Korea 385 50 21 314 Others 3 0 3 0 Total $53,545 $12,175 $2,728 $38,642

*In-kind contributions are donations of goods and services such as weapons, fuel, food and transportation

Source: Office of Management and Budget