Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20210928

A30 world news
Diamars 28 september 2021

Shadow contracts, corruption keep the lights out in Iraq

Islamic State group, is the able.
latest example of party eco-
nomic representatives who Officials who question why
have strong-armed compa- contract prices are inflated
nies over the years. receive warnings, including
one who objected to a power
Through coordination plant in northern Salahaddin
among ministry loyalists, province that was overval-
company officials and law- ued by $600 million. He got
makers, representatives like a call when it became clear
al-Kufi are appointed to en- he would not sign off on the
sure certain contracts are ap- deal, he said.
proved, a contractor of their
choosing is selected to ex- Be careful, he was told.
ecute them and a cut deliv-
ered to the party, according DAUNTING EQUA-
to officials at six companies TIONS
involved in the process since
2018. Every electricity minister
since the 2003 U.S.-led in-
Al-Kufi was named in the lo- vasion that toppled dictator
cal media in July when a letter Saddam Hussein has faced
purportedly penned by for- this daunting equation: Iraq
mer Electricity Minister Ma- should be able to produce
jid Hantoush accused him of over 30,000 megawatts of
undermining the ministry’s power, enough to meet cur-
work. Hantoush, who later rent demand, but only about
(AP) — In the Baghdad try, this system has enabled al-Saffar of the International resigned, denied writing it. a half of that reaches con-
suburb of Sadr City, glossy under-the-table payments to Energy Agency. sumers.
election campaign post- political elites who siphon Nassar Rubaie, the head of
ers are plastered alongside state funds from companies SHADOW CONTRACTS the Sadrist Movement’s po- Poor infrastructure, inap-
jungles of sagging elec- contracted to improve the litical wing, said his party propriate fuel and theft ac-
trical wires lining the al- delivery of services. In June, an Iraqi businessman earned the electricity min- count for 40%-60% of losses,
leyway to Abu Ammar’s received a call from the rep- istry because it won the among the highest rates in
home. The Associated Press spoke resentative of the economic most parliament seats in the the world. In the more im-
to a dozen former and cur- committee of the Sadrist 2018 election. The ministry, poverished south, heat, urban
But his mind is far from rent ministry officials and Movement led by Muqtada with its high state budget, is expansion and illegal dwell-
Iraq’s Oct. 10 federal elec- company contractors. They al-Sadr, a populist Shiite among the most sought after. ings put even more pressure
tion. The 56-year-old retired described tacit partnerships cleric with a cult-like follow- He confirmed al-Kufi was on the aging grid.
soldier’s social welfare pay- secured through intimidation ing whose party garnered the a Sadrist figure, but denied
ments barely cover the cost of and mutual benefit between most seats in the 2018 elec- the allegations against him or Revenue collections are abys-
food and medicine, let alone ministry political appointees, tion. the Movement, saying they mal and subsidies astronomi-
electricity. Despite chronic political parties and the com- amounted to “slander.” cal. The ministry collects less
outages from the national panies, ensuring that a per- The representative, Abbas al- than 10% of what it should
grid, Abu Ammar can’t afford centage of those funds end Kufi, wanted to see him. He If documents exist proving in billings. In December, a
a generator. up in party coffers. All spoke had been informed the busi- the complicity of Sadrist offi- parliamentary committee re-
on condition of anonymity nessman met with Electricity cials, he would personally see ported that $81 billion had
When the lights go off, he has because they feared reprisal Ministry officials to discuss a to it that they are prosecuted been spent on the electricity
no choice but to steal power from political groups. multi-million-dollar project in a court of law, al-Rubaie sector since 2005, yet outages
from a neighbor’s line. He to increase languishing tariff added. were still the norm.
doesn’t have the right politi- “Corruption occurs as an collections — bills owed to
cal connections to get elec- individual act or for politi- the government by consum- Only, no such paper trail ex- That is partly to blame on
tricity otherwise, he says, a cal interest,” said ministry ers, which in Iraq are rarely ists. politically appointed civil
frail figure seated in a spartan spokesman Ahmed Mousa. paid. servants, especially director-
living room. “It happens everywhere in Contractors said intimida- generals of key departments,
Iraq, not just the Electricity At al-Kufi’s office, the busi- tion is standard operating who wield the most influ-
In this country, if you don’t Ministry.” nessman was instructed to procedure in the Electricity ence in the ministry and are
have these contacts, “your deliver 15% of earnings, in Ministry. One official from empowered to facilitate con-
situation will be like ours,” Meanwhile, the public cash, once the deal was inked a major multinational com- tract fraud, according to six
Abu Ammar says. seethes, outraged that in and the ministry paid out the pany said he was ordered to former and current officials.
Iraq, a major oil-producing invoices. subcontract to a local compa- Negotiations after the 2018
In Iraq, electricity is a potent country with plentiful en- ny exclusively as a package of election involved at least
symbol of endemic corrup- ergy resources, the prospect “He told me, ‘The Electric- deals worth billions was be- 500 such posts. The Sadrist
tion, rooted in the coun- of electricity 24-hours-a-day ity Ministry belongs to me, ing negotiated with the gov- Movement was given the
try’s sectarian power-sharing is a distant dream. Neighbor- to my party,’ and I can’t do ernment. most — 200.
system that allows political hoods nationwide face daily anything without his approv-
elites to use patronage net- outages — up to 14 hours al,” the businessman recalled “It was made clear to me: ‘Ei- The future is bleak.
works to consolidate power. during peak summer in the being told by al-Kufi, who ther you join us, or you will
It’s perpetuated after each impoverished southern prov- wields untold influence ce- get nothing in the end,’” he Demand is set to double by
election cycle: Once results inces, where temperatures mented by the Sadrist Move- said. 2030, with Iraq’s population
are tallied, politicians jockey can reach 52 degrees Celsius ment’s powerful militia arm. growing by 1 million per
for appointments in a flurry (125 Fahrenheit). To secure the funds for pay- year. The International En-
of negotiations based on the “They aren’t shy,” the busi- off, sometimes more expen- ergy Agency estimates that by
number of seats won. Minis- It’s a conundrum that baffles nessman added. “They tell sive materials are invoiced not developing its electricity
try portfolios and state insti- energy experts. you: ‘If you don’t follow us, than what is actually bought. sector, Iraq has lost $120 bil-
tutions are divided between we will hurt you.’” One official estimated “bil- lion between 2014-2020 in
them into spheres of control. “The technical solutions are lions” have been lost to these jobs and industrial growth
clear, and it’s not happening. Al-Kufi, once a militia fig- schemes since 2003, but ac- due to unmet demand.
In the Electricity Minis- One has to ask why?” said Ali ure in the fight against the curate figures are not avail-