Provincial Reconstruction, Oct. 2, 2006
Multi-National Force-Iraq
Monday, 02 October 2006
Lt. Col. Kirk Stemple
Deputy Team Leader
Babil Provincial Reconstruction Team
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN FOR MULTINATIONAL FORCE IRAQ TOPIC: RECONSTRUCTION IN IRAQ ALSO PRESENT: LIEUTENANT COLONEL KIRK STEMPLE (SP), DEPUTY TEAM LEADER, BABIL PROVINCIAL RECONSTRUCTION TEAM LOCATION: HILLAH, IRAQ DATE: MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2006
(Note: This event was fed in progress.)
MODERATOR: (In progress) -- of the Babil provincial reconstruction team. With me is Lieutenant Colonel Kirk Stemple (sp), the deputy team leader. And both of us are very pleased this morning to welcome Major General Caldwell, the deputy chief of staff for strategic effects at the Multinational Force Iraq. I'd like to invite him to offer any opening remarks that he might have, and we'll then get into a discussion of the work of the PRT and try to answer what questions you might have before we go out and look at a couple of sites where work is going on through the auspices of the PRT. General Caldwell.
GEN. CALDWELL: Right. Thanks, Chuck. Right. All right. First of all, I just want to say thank you, welcome you all. "As-salaam aleikum."
Obviously what we're doing here is a significant part of the future of Iraq. Iraq's success depends upon the ability of the provinces to assume their governance, their security and their prosperity.
And this particular provincial reconstruction team or, as we call them, PRTs, one of 10 that will eventually be in existence throughout the country.
Today we have seven of them up and running. Two of them, of those seven, will be officially inaugurated, one later this week and one next week, by Ambassador Khalilzad at ceremonies both in Diyala province and in Salahuddin province.
But this is a key ingredient. This is -- we talk normally in terms of security, in terms of security forces and how we want to build the Iraqi security forces to a force of about 325,000. But security is only one small piece of the overall success for this country, and the other part we talk about is unity and prosperity. And to achieve those, there must be governance, there must be local businesses, there must be the ability for provincial and local councils to meet and provide that direction and guidance. And through teams such as this one we have here, that kind of training is going on through their local governance program and other activities that they have, which I know they'll discuss with you today.
So I just want to say on behalf of the Multinational Force and especially the U.S. mission here in Iraq, on behalf of Ambassador Khalilzad, thanks for being here today. This is the key to the future of Iraq. Everything else is progressing and moving along, but this is what will really allow the people of Iraq to be back in control of their destinies. And so it's great that you have the opportunity to see it today, to talk to Chuck, a career civil servant, many, many years working in this part of the world, understands the culture of the people, and we're very fortunate that he volunteered to come spend a year here and head up our regional embassy office here in Hillah.
So with that, I'm going to turn it back over to you, if I could.
MODERATOR: Thanks very much for those kind words.
I think my foreign service, civil service and military colleagues are all here on behalf of the mission that you've just summarized. And although I've, you know, introduced only Kirk and myself, there is in fact an entire team standing behind us to accomplish that purpose in trying to give the people of Babil an opportunity to have a government that is responsive to them, that provides a democratic and transparent process of decision-making and that is better able to ensure their security and prosperity.
This PRT, as you are aware, was one of the first established. And although our work is long term in nature and many of the effects that we are going to see are not fully formed yet, we have, I think, been successful during our months of operation in serving as a catalyst and an agent for change, giving the Iraqis an entity with which to engage in dialogue and to use us as a means of furthering their own internal dialogues. We are, I think, a bridge toward the future that we want to help create, but we are not a substitute for that future. And to reach that state, there is a process of education that goes on.
As you're no doubt aware, in 2003 and thereafter, there was a great deal of funding available for projects, infrastructure and otherwise. As time has passed, it's clear that a transition needs to happen, and the PRT is part of that transition. We do have some project money available to us, but we're looking to use that project money to leverage the Iraqis' ability to build their future.
We're hoping to establish dialogues on all sorts of different levels. Bilaterally, of course, here at the provincial level, we are the primary interlocutor for the provincial governments and for the people of this province, but we also have an ability that we are doing everything possible to capitalize on to foster dialogues within Iraqi society that haven't been fully formed in the past.
Dialogues, for example, within the provincial government. On issues where in the past there have been what I might call stovepiped lines of authority, we can help point out the synergies that can exist and the cross-cutting concerns that we need to address in development projects. That, I think, is a great contribution that can be made, as is the ability to foster dialogue between citizens and their government. An example would be meetings that have been arranged through our local governments program for citizens to provide input into the development of provincial development plans. In the past, this ability to contribute, to speak up, didn't exist at all, and we are helping to give voice to those concerns to try to direct development in the ways that the citizens feel best serve their needs.
And we are fostering dialogue with the central governments. And this is a particularly important point as we transition into a phase where project money from the United States government isn't so readily available. The Iraqis themselves have great resources to draw on for building their future, for implementing the infrastructure projects that are needed. And we, through the PRT and working with the embassy, can help them gain access to those funds by good planning, by putting together scopes of work for projects that are well thought out, and by helping them to make the case to those who do control funds that these projects should be brought on line. We won't be the implementers, but we will enable them to move into a time where they can implement the projects themselves. So in that sense, really we in the PRT are looking to work ourselves out of a job.
It will be a long-term effort, as I say. The PRT will not be around till the end of that effort, but our long-term focus really is -- to use an image that will be familiar to English speakers -- to teach people to fish. We are no longer able to hand people that fish, but we need to let them do the job themselves.
So, what are some of the outcomes that have resulted from the work of the PRT to far?
Well, first of all, there is a far greater knowledge base for Iraqis to work from. Let me give you just one example, and I will let Kirk speak later to some of the more specific projects that are going on in response to questions that you might have. But one example is the work of our economic team to inventory the steps necessary to start a business here in Babil province, and what they are finding is that in some cases it can require over 100 signatures, over 20 official stamps or seals, and numerous fees to be paid before someone can go into business.
Now, obviously, from the standpoint of attracting investments, encouraging entrepreneurship, these are not desirable conditions. We'll make that information available. We will not then say, "You should eliminate this and this and this." But we will work with the Iraqis when they decide to address that particular state of affairs to advise on some ways of streamlining business so that we can in fact encourage investment, encourage more entrepreneurship.
Another thing that the PRT has done is spurred the creation of a mechanism for establishing priorities, which is vitally important in a place where previously everything was commanded from the central government. Three years ago, there was really no way for leaders at the provincial level to consult amongst themselves and decide what the way forward would be for themselves and their citizens. Through the PRT, we have created the PRDC, the Provincial Reconstruction Development Committee, which is a joint body, U.S. and Iraqi, that looks at possible projects, establishes priorities and attempts to identify funding for those priorities in the order in which they are listed. The Iraqis in turn have established a mechanism purely internally a project management unit that will serve them once the PRDC has ceased to exist, and this will be a very important tool for them to use in future years.
From that, they're able to greatly enhance their planning for future activities, and one small example on that front, where our working together has enhanced planning, was a joint plan created by our USAID colleagues and the provincial council for dealing with the issue of internally displaced persons. Thanks to that plan, it was possible to avoid having large camps for IDPs here in Babil province because ways were found to identify alternative housing for those individuals.
We have clearly enhanced the infrastructure here in the project, and you'll have an opportunity later in the day to see one of those projects that's ongoing. But realistically, we the American and coalition side can no longer do everything, and so our work is to transition to that time where the Iraqis realistically can carry the work forward themselves. And so what we're getting is better coordination, better information flow.
And most importantly -- and this is what I'll stop on and see what questions you have and give Kirk a chance to talk about specific projects -- what we really have is far more a spirit of partnership than has been the case in the past. It's not the Americans in charge. The Iraqis are the ones moving their country toward that future that we want to see -- a stable, peaceful, prosperous and democratic Iraq. We are a tool to make that happen, and as long as we are able to serve that purpose, it's our honor to be here and do that. But we are first and foremost partners for the Iraqis.
Thank you, and we'll --
(Pause for direction.)
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): Again, I would like to also say thank you for taking the time to come see us here at the Babil Provincial Reconstruction Team.
(Pause for direction.)
We work on several projects here with our Iraqi friends, and some of those are going to be compact water units, work with paving projects, will do with school rehabilitations. There are just a wide variety of projects that we work with.
One of the things that Chuck mentioned was the PRDC, and really that, I think, is the key because they have come up with a prioritized list of projects based on input from each of the communities that they serve underneath the Provincial Council.
They also have, as a result of the experience they've gained with the PRDC, have provided and have made their own project management unit under the Provincial Council, which is their means of spending government of Iraq money instead of U.S. money. So they've transferred the skills that they have learned with us from the PRDC to be able to set up their own project prioritized list, scopes of work, and so therefore we have Iraqis who are benefiting directly from funds provided by the government of Iraq, through the government of Iraq, through the Provincial Council and the governor.
We're kind of on a tight schedule. Do you have any specific questions that you would like to ask at this time?
STAFF: Again, for recording purposes, we'll hand you the mike, and then we need to hand the mike back to the translator to repeat the question.
Q (Through interpreter.) Thank you very much. My name is Riyal al-Ariv (ph). I'm from Babil Radio Station. Today we are very happy with your presence and happy to talk to you about projects.
As a reporter in Babil, I am present in the streets of Babil more than anybody else. It is a channel of communications with the citizens. Three years has passed and now we are on our fourth year. The citizens still are suffering from lack of basic services. There is a loss of trust between the citizens and the local government because the citizens did not see or felt any tangible change in his life.
I follow up on projects and I did tour with the governor and Provincial Council and I saw some deep happiness in some of the citizens who live in rural areas because clean water that they can drink reached them.
I think this is a very important step, to have clean drinking water.
But there is still a lot of sections that suffer from problems. In the health section, there's shortage in medication and the way -- and how to get this medication. And in the electricity section, power is cut off for more than 10 hours. And in the agriculture section, the farmers are still suffering from a lot of difficulties and problems.
We need real investment, because the investment issue is nonexistent in Babil, and there's no noticeable investments.
And construction is connected to security. Babil City is stable. And let's try what the British forces did in BasraBasra under the protection of Iraqi forces to work in Basra. Most of the citizens are suffering from unemployment, and unemployment is causing a lot of problems in the security issue. when they allowed foreign companies to come into
I apologize for prolonging, but I like to talk -- since we are talking about projects and during my -- when I read this paper that you presented to me, I stopped at some numbers. For example, 80th Street cost $4.5 million. And the federal building that you -- the project of the federal building is going to cost over $6.25 million.
I'm just wondering, you have a street that costs $4 million that costs $6.25 million, how -- where are these funding -- I'd like to know where the funds are coming from, how they're being disbursed and who's supervising these projects.
Thank you very much for this opportunity. I'd like to give a chance to my friends, and if there's a chance for me to speak again, I will come back.
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): Okay. If I can answer your question then, you ask about the funds for the 80th Street Eightieth Street and the court house are both funded by coalition funds. The court house was a project developed by the national government. They wanted court houses in different areas of the country. So the money comes from coalition for that. Eightieth Street was, again, funded by coalition forces, but it is one of the projects that the provincial council and the PRDC determined to be the major project for the province. And the thing I'm trying to say here is that the provincial council and the PRDC are the ones who chose 80th Street to be that project. and for the court house.
There a are a number of other projects within the province that aren't necessarily visible. For example, when we put in water lines, they're beneath the ground, and so it's not a very visible thing to the public at large. And we are continuing to work with the DT of water to improve water quality here in Babil province by developing an assessment program to help them identify where they need their work to be focused.
The other thing to note here is that many of the things that you speak about were from systems that were neglected for many, many, years, and the answer or the correction for them does not come overnight. It requires patience and long-term commitment.
For example, there are several electric distribution projects within the province that are many millions of dollars that will help with distribution of electricity. But generation plants are much longer lead items and take much longer to establish, either in this province or throughout Iraq.
We also -- when you talk about health care, one of the things that we're working on are several hospitals within Babil province as well as health clinics to bring them up and operating, and then we need to work with the DG of Health to make sure that they are properly staffed with trained Iraqi doctors and medical professionals as well as the medical supplies.
And one of the other programs that the PRT has been involved with over the last few months was the provision of 21 ambulances to the province of Babil that are serving the people as we speak.
And one of the important things when we talk about who chooses which projects is to make sure that the citizens have an avenue to talk with their officials so that they can -- the officials then have their input, from the nahia level, from the qada level and up on to the Provincial Council so that they can form a prioritized project list; that is, the wishes of the people with the long-term vision of the Provincial Council.
MODERATOR: And thank you.
Do we have another question? Please.
STAFF: (Off mike) -- question?
Q Yes. I'll yield to the gentleman from -- (off mike).
Q Okay. Thank you.
STAFF: Can you be translator?
Q Yes.
Q (Through interpreter.) Mr. Hassan Manafman (sp) from As- Safir Al-Arabi newspaper, Baghdad. Lieutenant Colonel Stemple (sp), either -- in Baghdad they don't know a lot about the PRTs. Would you explain to us, sir, the job and the projects that your team have accomplished here?
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): Certainly. Thank you.
The provincial reconstruction team, or the PRT, consists of a number of different divisions. And so we have representatives from the Department of Justice that talks about rule of law. We have representatives from the USAID that also provides, through its offices, training like the local governance program that we're going to see a little bit later here. We also have representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that helps with a number of projects and the different management of each of those projects. We also have Civil Affairs from the Department of Defense that help interact between -- go out and get information for each of those different departments. And we also have a representative from the Iraqi Reconstruction Management Office, or IRMO. And we also interact with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team in Kalsu.
And so as a unified team, we provide -- try to provide some security services, some training to the military, some training to the police, as well as with the provincial council and the local officials.
And I hope that answered your question.
Q (Through interpreter.) Sir, what projects have been accomplished, and what was the cost of these projects? LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): Well, there are over 600 projects in this province that have been worked on by coalition forces. I can't give you off the top of my head the exact cost for each of those projects because there are so many, but there are compact water units, there are paving projects, there are hospital renovations, there are ambulances that we mentioned earlier, different health clinics. We also work with the agricultural unions to provide farm equipment. We're in the process of providing some seed cleaners. We helped with, of course, the spraying of the date palms that were here earlier, which is, again, part of the U.S. government aid. So it's a wide variety of different things from all different aspects.
MODERATOR: Yeah, we need to move on to our -- certainly.
Q Greg Smith (sp) from the Los Angeles Times. Do you have an integrated database of those 600 projects? And could you, say, pop little piece of it under my stick with information like the contracting number, and the budget information, and the time starting and time of finishing, and the executing agency and so forth?
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): I'll have to see what we can get cleared because, again, it's pretty broad. It goes over a number of different areas and a number of different agencies, and we'll have to get that cleared before I can give you the exact details.
Q (Off mike) -- can I have you answer the first question by the end of the day? Do you have an integrated database of your project?
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): Yes, we do.
Q Jay Price (sp) with Knight Ridder. One of the things I wanted to ask about was this prioritized project list.
Have you started work on any of those projects yet? I know the money just did start coming down.
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): Yeah. No, they're ongoing. The prioritized project list from the PRDC is an ongoing list. I think Kevin Stohl (sp) can probably talk about the exact -- more exact list of those types of projects, but they're all over the province, and they are, again, set -- the priority is set by the PRDC, which is the Iraqi local officials.
Q And there was a large pot of money, I think, in Baghdad, for the federal government to distribute -- I think it was $2 billion -- that was going to get divvied up by populations. Is that what we're talking about here?
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): The PRDC is a separate pot of money. PRDC is coalition forces, where the Project Management Unit is government of Iraq money, about $107 million for the province of Babil.
MODERATOR: And that's what I was referring to when saying that one of the important things that the PRT can contribute is a means for the Iraqis to look at how they're going to spend that money to establish their priorities, to interact with the central government when that's necessary to make the money flow, because that has been something that's happened in phases. And so we are looking to enable them to access that money and get it spent in ways that make sense.
Q And what's the origin of that $2 billion? Where did that come from? Where do the Iraqis get it?
MODERATOR (?): That you'd best ask people in Baghdad.
Q When do you guys think you're going to be done here?
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): Well, as I said earlier, the PRTs aren't intended to be around forever. That will in part be a decision by Congress because the funding will at some point not be continued. We are certainly going to be operating in fiscal year 2007. I would anticipate doing so in fiscal year 2008, but again, that's Congress's decision. And each PRT is going to be different, as well. The different provinces are developing at different rates. And it will be the national coordination team in Baghdad that makes the determination as to when each of the PRTs will come on line and when each one will stand down. Q And what assurances do the people of the province have that these funds will be spent properly? I mean, do you guys help them set up mechanisms to oversee funding and how it's handled?
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): I don't know which f funds you're talking about, the PRDC or the PMU.
Q The PMU.
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): The PMU is totally run by Iraqis. And so they have their own -- they've set aside a certain percentage of their total to hire accountants, to look at engineers. They work with their DGs and their directors for each of the different sectors to make sure that they are doing things in the line with the strategic plan for both not only the province but for the government of Iraq.
Q One last one. The biggest challenge you guys face now, the PRT here?
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): What is the biggest?
Q Yeah.
LT. COL. STEMPLE (sp): That's a good question. We have a number of challenges, but part of it is, I think, changing minds, both ours and theirs, into what the new Iraq will be. And it's not trying to rush ahead and tell people what to do, it's trying to work with them to help them decide what is the next thing and how they want to move forward. And that is a challenge both for us and for them.
M0DERATOR (?): Gentlemen, we better wrap up, move on. There will be opportunities to engage our spokesmen as we go on the tour to the local government building and to the 80th Street project. So there will be more time to ask questions.
END.
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