Friday, February 27, 2004
Reconstructing Iraq without the Iraqis.
With nearly 40 years of civil engineering service under his belt, Sabah Al-Ani is among Iraq's top experts in water treatment. He kept the country's systems up and running through countless floods and droughts, years of economic sanctions and three wars.
After bombings and looting sprees left the water network in worse shape than ever, Al-Ani prepared to help out once again. But a directive from the U.S.-led occupation authority locked him out of the reconstruction process.
Al-Ani is an employee of the General Co. for Water Projects, one of 200-odd ventures in Iraq that are owned wholly or in part by the state and have been told they are ineligible for contracts being issued by the occupation. The company's 187 workers still collect their government salaries but they now spend their days on floors two and three of a downtown building here playing video games, reading books and chitchatting to pass the time.
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The decision to ban state-owned companies from reconstruction contracts funded by U.S. taxpayers was made for both legal and philosophical reasons. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was unclear how U.S. regulations apply to a company that was owned by a rogue state that no longer exists. And it was hoping to redistribute wealth and power in a country that for decades was dominated by Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party loyalists.
For example, the CPA put Bechtel National Inc. in charge of managing the reconstruction of Iraq's water supply system, including a project the General Co. used to run, the expansion of the Sharkh Dijlah, or East Tigris River, Water Treatment Plant.
Bechtel, which estimates the project will cost $16 million, spent four months studying the General Co. plans, concluded they were adequate, modified them slightly, city officials said, reissued orders for parts from the same supplier, and basically did what was being done before.
The American company began construction in October, according to city engineers, and has stationed two foreign engineers at the plant, who visit when the security situation allows, in two white SUVs filled with four armed guards. The rest of the work is being done by Iraqi subcontractors. So far, the Bechtel workers have driven in some concrete pillars for a foundation in what was once an empty field, but additional work has been held up by delays in the shipment of parts.
Incompetence at work. (viaBody and Soul).
posted by chris at 5:06 PM
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