13 February 2006
Stable Government Seen Helping Iraq's Economic Reconstruction
State's Speckhard says long-term planning feasible with four-year government
By Phillip Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The emergence of a democratic government in Iraq, with representatives elected to a four-year term, will speed up the reconstruction of the country and help the Iraqi authorities take control of the economy, according to the U.S. official overseeing the reconstruction effort.
Three turnovers of political power following the overthrow of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 stymied strategic planning and capital investments needed to resurrect the economy, according to Daniel Speckhard, the State Department's director of strategic governance and economic effects, and the department's director of the Iraq reconstruction management office.
"Our sense is with a four-year government, we then can build that capacity," Speckhard said February 9 in a telephone briefing from Baghdad. (See related article.)
"The real focus here is trying to accelerate the transition to self-sufficiency in Iraq in terms of their ability to carry the progress forward that we've started, and that's both at the national and the provincial level," he said.
FOSTERING COOPERATION
During the period ruled by Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi ministries and provincial leaders did not develop public administration skills because the concentration of power prevented it.
"Because of ... the legacies of the Saddam era, only one person could basically authorize each project and that meant only the minister could do that," he said. Compounding the problem was lack of cooperation among ministers, he said.
"The Ministry of Electricity had the plan and the Ministry of Finance had the money, but the dynamic between those two" prevented money from being transferred, Speckhard said. "With a four-year government, you can start to seriously make progress on" those issues, he added.
The official said that the Iraqi authorities at the national level have shown a willingness to take responsibility for economic decisions into their own hands.
"You're seeing that at the prime minister level and the ministerial level ... that these people feel very strongly about ... the Iraqi ability to move and to lead the country as it moves forward. That's at the strategic level," Speckhard said.
But this sense of ownership and responsibility generally does not apply to people who operate industrial plants, Speckhard said. They tend to work on the assumption that "the big companies who came in and did this" will take care of it, he said. "If we don't ... solve this problem, somebody else will solve this problem. So there's still a little disconnect ... between the strategic level and what's happening down at the plant level," he added.
"That's what really needs to be addressed this year," he said.
Speckhard said the reconstruction authorities are implementing the "asset transfer system" which is intended to put Iraqis in charge of maintaining reconstruction projects built by the United States and other members of the international coalition.
"We are developing an asset transfer system so that they can put in one spot all of these capital investments that we've made so that they understand what those are and then help them understand what the maintenance costs of these are," he said.
"Their basic system under Saddam Hussein had been you buy something new or you fix something and then you run it into the ground and then you replace it," he said. "What we are working very hard is to get them to be maintaining the infrastructure on a more regular rate."
Speckhard emphasized that Iraq's reconstruction is a multiyear program requiring billions of dollars. He said efforts are under way to make sure that the Iraqi people understand those expectations and that the Iraqi government is able to attract international capital to realize them. Compared to other developing countries, Iraq probably will be more fortunate than most because its vast oil resources are able to provide the revenue to support its development, he said.
FIGHTING CORRUPTION
Regarding the issue of corruption, Speckhard said the United States is "very concerned" about how it affects the broader economy. "And in a particular area, in the Ministry of Oil and oil production, it's absolutely essential that the Iraqis address this issue to ensure that they get a handle on it."
He said the oil system lacks enough meters at the points that oil is pumped out of the ground, sent to refineries and loaded for export. Once those figures can be known, effective efforts can be made to combat corruption, he said.
The official said that reconstruction authorities are working to strengthen Iraq's commission on public integrity and its judicial system and are sharing information on corrupt officials.
"There's a lot we can do in that area in terms of what's key for us, which is to make sure that the oil revenues continue to support this country on that particular front," he said.
For addition information, see Iraq Update.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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