Impatient with slow progress in the rebuilding of Iraq, the US Department of State is conducting a major review of the US$18.4 billion program, seeking ways to provide more jobs and visible results more quickly to Iraqis, according to American diplomats and private advisers.
The aid effort, intended to transform Iraq's crumbling infrastructure as it wins the support of the Iraqi people, was adopted by Congress in the fall of last year. While the Pentagon was initially put in charge of designing projects and doling out contracts, it has increasingly shared authority with the State Department.
But the program has moved more slowly than many officials had expected: only about one-third of the money has been designated for specific projects so far, and most of those ventures are still in planning stages.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Pentagon's approach to the aid -- focusing on huge power, water and other building projects, with billion-dollar-plus "prime contracts" given to a small number of American firms -- has also been criticized by development experts and some diplomats as misdirected and wasteful.
A new look at spending goals and methods has been a priority of the new US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, who took charge of the American mission after the transfer of formal sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 28.
William Taylor, a State Department official who previously worked in Afghanistan, is managing the review, which officials hope to complete by early next month. Later this year, he is expected to take over as the Baghdad-based chief coordinator of aid, replacing David Nash, the retired navy admiral who has directed rebuilding so far.
State Department officials agree that Iraq's decayed and war-damaged infrastructure needs an overhaul, and they say they do not expect to fundamentally alter the aid program's aims, although they will consult with Congress on recommended changes.
But they are asking, for example, whether larger amounts should pass through Iraqi ministries with careful conditions rather than be handed to Western firms; whether labor-intensive building methods, spreading jobs and benefits, can be more strongly supported; and whether some large-scale infrastructure needs might just as well be met by international lending agencies like the World Bank, according to a senior State Department official.
"The Iraqis deservedly have a reputation for knowing their own system," the official said in an interview on Monday, noting the enormous confusion and start-up costs as Western firms moved quickly into the alien territory of Iraq over the past year.
Diplomats are going out of their way to describe the review as a routine and long-planned step. But after the American-led invasion of Iraq in March last year, some officials complained that the Pentagon pushed aside the State Department's planning for restoring the traumatized society. Aid experts criticized what they saw as the military's reflexive "big project, big contract" approach to aid. The Defense Department remains formally in charge of most contracting in Iraq, but must share increasing authority with the State Department.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia