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U.S. Reconstruction Projects In Iraq And Afghanistan Going To Waste Because Of Lack Of Planning

In the beginning of June 2011, the Commission on Wartime Contacting in Iraq and Afghanistan issued its latest report. It warned that the U.S. could be wasting millions in reconstruction funds in the two countries. The Commission said that hundreds of projects could be left sitting idle because American agencies had not planned for how the host countries were supposed to maintain them.

The Commission said that as the U.S. draws down from Iraq and Afghanistan, it has to plan for maintaining the projects and programs it has created. In Iraq, the Americans have built hundreds of schools, clinics, roads, power plants, barracks, hospitals, irrigation projects, prisons, etc. All of those require maintenance, staff, payrolls, equipment, spare parts, and security to continue to operate after the United States has left. The Commission found no evidence that any government agency was making plans for these continued costs. If these things are not considered many of these projects could eventually fail, wasting billions of dollars.

There are plenty of examples of these problems in Iraq. First, the Commission noted that the Americans built 133 health-care centers for $345 million in the country. It paid a contactor to operate and repair the facilities for one year, but didn’t build up the capacity within the Health Ministry to continue with the task afterward. The Ministry could very well sign a new contract in a year, but it can’t keep up all the centers on its own. The U.S. also constructed a $270 million water-treatment plant in Nasiriyah, Dhi Qar with no nearby power source. It is often out of commission, produces murky water that locals won’t use, and the facility’s equipment is too sophisticated for its Iraqi staff to operate. In Hillah, Babil, there’s a $4 million maternity hospital that lacks enough staff and supplies, and the Iraqis were never trained on the equipment that the U.S. installed. In Baghdad, the Ibn Sina Hospital was the largest American military medical facility in Iraq, but when it was turned over to the Iraqis, the Health Ministry couldn’t maintain it, and it was shut down. All of these showed some of the shortcomings in the American reconstruction effort in Iraq. The U.S. came in with grand plans, but suffered from a lack of analysis of the situation within Iraq, poor planning, weak coordination, and a lack of follow through. One of the Commission’s chairmen, former Republican congressman Christopher Shays told the Washington Post, that the Iraqi government is not going to or can’t maintain most of the projects that the U.S. is leaving behind. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction made similar observations in the past. 

The Commission’s overall recommendation was that the United States needed to think about the countries they hoped to rebuild, and not just their own priorities. Each nation has at its own technical and financial capabilities. Those factors need to be considered when building projects overseas, so that they can be successfully operated and maintained. If those aren’t included in planning they can lead to waste, undermine the host government’s credibility, and hurt stability. Some of that has already been seen in Iraq where the Commission has found several billion dollars gone for naught in idle facilities. Unfortunately for the United States, it seems like the lessons have not been learned as the report found no government agency planning for these contingencies going into the future, and that many of the same mistakes are currently being made in Afghanistan as well. Despite being in the Afghanistan for ten years and Iraq for eight there seems to be little institutional memory being created that can stop these problems from happening again the next time an administration decides to partake in nation building.

SOURCES

Chandrasekaran, Rajiv, “U.S. projects in war zones are unsustainable, study finds,” Washington Post, 6/2/11

Commission on Wartime Contracting In Iraq And Afghanistan, “Sustainability: hidden costs risk new waste,” 6/3/11

Special Inspector General For Iraq Reconstruction, “Hard Lessons,” 1/22/09

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Iraq’s Oil Industry Under Attack

Iraq’s insurgents are targeting the country’s oil industry. In June 2011, there were five attacks, four upon infrastructure, and one upon a visiting delegation from Iran’s Oil Ministry. These were the first attacks upon Iraq’s petroleum business since March, which points to a new campaign to undermine the nation’s most important resource.

Baiji oil refinery in Salahaddin was attacked in June and March 2011 (Iraq Oil Report)

In June there were a series of headline grabbing assaults upon Iraq’s Oil Ministry. On June 27, a rocket was fired at the Shuaiba oil refinery in Basra, and the police found two others before they went off. Three days before, the Baiji refinery in Salahaddin was bombed. First reports simply said an explosion occurred at the facility, which caused a fire that took four hours to put out. It was then revealed that the cause was a bomb that went off near a gas pipeline around 2:30 am, but which did not cause any major damage. Two days before that, men shot at a caravan carrying a delegation from the Iranian Oil Ministry through eastern Baghdad with silencers. Two guards were wounded. The cars belonged to the Oil Ministry, and it was unclear whether the assault was aimed at the Iranians or just an attack upon government vehicles. On June 15, four bombs were found at the Daura refinery in Baghdad. Officials said that it was an inside job, and several guards were arrested as suspects. Finally on June 5, the Zubair oil field in Basra was attacked. Reports differ as to whether it was hit by bombs or rockets, but its oil storage facility was hit, setting its petroleum reserves on fire. The day before, Deputy Premier Hussein Shahristani who is in charge of the country’s energy policy had visited Zubair. All these attacks point towards a new insurgent campaign against Iraq’s resources. The last time any facilities were targeted was back on March 8, when the northern pipeline to Turkey was bombed, closing it down for five days for repairs. The fact that the Zubair field was hit and the Shuaiba refinery was targeted was also something new, as the southern fields, which hold the vast majority of Iraq’s reserves, have not been threatened for years.

Oil is Iraq’s most important resource. It provides nearly 90% of the country’s revenue, and the government is hoping to vastly ramp up production with foreign contracts it signed in 2009. Striking at the industry now, just as that process is beginning to take off not only grabs headlines for the insurgents, which they can use to raise money, but also puts added pressure on the government. The militants are also probably hoping that they can scare some of the international businesses as well. The problem for the insurgents is that they lack the resources to maintain any campaign for more than just a few weeks. Hopefully that means there are only a few more attacks before they have to re-group, re-arm, and move onto their next target.

SOURCES

Agence France Presse, “Bombed Iraqi pipeline to be fixed ‘in five days,’” 3/10/11

Aswat al-Iraq,"Katusha rocket falls close to Basra refinery," 6/27/11
- “Rocket attack sets fire to oil reserve field in South Iraq,” 6/5/11

DPA, “Iraq’s largest oil refinery shuts down after fire,” 6/24/11

El Gamal, Rania, “UPDATE 2-Bombs hit Iraq oil tanks in rare southern attack,” Reuters, 6/5/11

Lando, Ben, “Beiji bombed again,” Iraq Oil Report, 6/24/11
- “UPDATE: Iranian oil delegation attacked in Baghdad,” Iraq Oil Report, 6/22/11

Reuters, “Iraq army defuse bombs at key oil refinery-sources,” 6/17/11

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