Re-building Iraq.............

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Re-building Iraq.............
Wed, 02-25-2004 - 9:07am

Misuse worries 'limit Iraq aid'.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3485876.stm


Security fears and worries over the misuse of funds are limiting the level of reconstruction aid reaching Iraq, the World Bank has said.


Iraq looks set to receive only $500m (£265m) of $33bn pledged last year before the 30 June deadline for the US-led coalition to hand over power.

John Speakman, a senior Bank official, told French news agency AFP that the rest of the money would have to wait.

The risk of it being misspent could undermine future reforms, he warned.

Mr Speakman was speaking ahead of a World Bank-sponsored conference in Dubai.

Pledges

The conference on 28 February is being organised by the United Arab Emirates' finance ministry on behalf of the Bank, the IMF and other organisations.

Ahead of the weekend conference, the UAE's Dubai Chamber of Commerce is arranging meetings among business leaders, Iraqi officials and World Bank senior staff to help local firms bid for reconstruction contracts.

The weekend meeting is intended to flesh out the $33bn contributions pledged by donors in Madrid last October.

At the time, estimates for how much Iraq needed reached $54bn.

Careful

But most of that would have to wait until power is handed back by the US-led occupation authorities, Mr Speakman told AFP.

The World Bank will also have to set up proper rules for public procurement to avoid corruption.

"We are talking about very huge sums of money," he said.

"There is a huge danger that these sums will be misallocated, mis-spent or not dealt with in a transparent way.

"That could undermine all future attempts to reform the Iraqi economy, because it would set things up in the wrong way."

In addition, many reforms of state enterprises would have to wait for an indigenous Iraqi government, since the Geneva Convention forbids major changes in areas such as state-controlled firms by occupying powers.

Over time, the task of reforming the way enterprises function in Iraq would cost about $2bn, Mr Speakman said.

But he said that the $500m or more the Bank was trying to commit before then was a "reasonable sum of money".



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Iraqi 'powerhouse' woos UK firms.


>"Alternating fluently to deal with queries in English and Arabic he reiterated the case that, despite continuing outbreaks of violence, Iraq is a country where the British are welcome.

"The whole country needs to be rebuilt and I hope that UK firms will be able to help that process," he said. "<



>""There have been a number of state companies which have been mismanaged in recent years, and which cannot be supported. However this will be looked at on a case-by-case basis."

He said unemployment was coming down, "to between 20-28%", and that oil price and production issues were being addressed.

'Conflicting messages'

But a London-based consultancy said Dr Allawi and the US-led administration was "painting too rosy a picture".

"We are getting conflicting messages out of Iraq," Dr Mostafa Ali Bazergan of Iraq Infosearch told BBC News Online.

"There is a lot of talk about privatisation and it is lurking there in the shadows, but no-one is clearly explaining what it might entail.

"What will happen? Is there going to be privatisation? It adds an air of uncertainty which is not helpful at the moment.

"The most important thing is dealing with unemployment. I believe the unemployment figure is many times the official figures.

"They should be trying to relieve this problem before talk of privatisation." ">


Quotes from..............

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3517257.stm


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Iraq contracts 'won by Bush donors'.


>"The report also drew attention to extensive links between the companies and the US government and military.

It claimed that 60% of the firms employed people who have worked for previous US governments, members of Congress, or the US army.

CPI executive director Charles Lewis said the contracting process in Iraq and Afghanistan was surrounded by "a stench of political favouritism and cronyism"."<


Quote from..........


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3231345.stm

cl-Libraone~

 


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