The WaPo outlines some of the problems being faced in the reconstruction of Iraq, and it appears the chief problem is a lack of security:
Efforts to rebuild water, electricity and health networks in Iraq are being shortchanged by higher-than-expected costs to provide security and by generous financial awards to contractors, according to a series of reports by government investigators released yesterday.
Taken together, the reports seem to run contrary to the Bush administration’s upbeat assessment that reconstruction efforts are moving vigorously ahead and that the insurgency is dying down.
The United States, Iraq and international donors have committed more than $60 billion to run Iraq and revive its damaged infrastructure. But security costs are eating away a substantial share of that total, up to 36 percent on some projects, the Government Accountability Office reported yesterday. The higher security costs are causing reconstruction authorities to scale back efforts in some areas and abandon projects in others.
For instance, in March, the U.S. Agency for International Development canceled two electric power generation programs to provide $15 million in additional security elsewhere. On another project to rehabilitate electric substations, the Army Corps of Engineers decided that securing 14 of the 23 facilities would be too expensive and limited the entire project to nine stations. And in February, USAID added $33 million to cover higher security costs on one project, which left it short of money to pay for construction oversight, quality assurance and administrative costs.
That is a lot of money being wasted, and the evidence is the pace and scope of reconstruction:
Despite $5.7 billion committed to restoring electricity service in Iraq, power generation was still at lower levels as of May than it had been before the U.S. invasion in 2003. In one case, the GAO reported, the United States led an overhaul of an Iraqi power plant but then did not adequately train the Iraqis how to operate it. A widespread power outage resulted.
Crude oil production has also dropped in the past two years, even with more than $5 billion in U.S. and Iraqi funds available for rebuilding. Oil export revenue is needed to fund more than 90 percent of the nascent Iraqi government’s 2005 budget, the State Department has said.
Not good. Jim Henley had a round-up on the electricity production a while back, and I am already cranky today, so I don’t even want to discuss the oil production (or lack thereof).
This quote stuck out, but for different reasons:
“If we didn’t have a bunch of extremists running around trying to derail the progress of the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people and the coalition, the amount of money spent on security would be far less,” said Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman. “It is a fact of life, one which cannot be wished away.”
Yes. Extremists. We have noticed.