Saturday, July 30, 2005
US Government RhetIraq: GAO Report
Who: United States Government Accountability Office
Source: Government Accountability Office
Quotes: From GAO-05-876 Report - Issued July 28, 2005
Note: Bolding is mine. This is an extremely long post, but this report is so comprehensive and informative that abbreviating the post would not have done the report justice.
As of March 2005, the United States, Iraq, and international donors had pledged or made available more than $60 billion for security, governance, and reconstruction efforts in Iraq. The United States provided about $24 billion (for fiscal years 2003 through 2005) largely for security and reconstruction activities. Of this amount, about $18 billion had been obligated and about $9 billion disbursed (see Note 1 below). The State department has reported that since July 2004, about $4.7 billion of $18.4 billion in fiscal year 2004 funding has been realigned from large electricity and water projects to security, economic development, and smaller immediate impact projects.
The U.S. has completed projects in Iraq that have helped to restore basic services, such as rehabilitating oil wells and refineries, increasing electrical generation capacity, restoring water treatment plants, and reestablishing Iraqi basic health care services. However, as of May 2005, Iraq’s crude oil production and overall power generation were lower than before the 2003 conflict, although power levels have increased recently; some completed water projects were not functioning as intended; and construction at hospital and clinics is under way. Reconstruction efforts continue to face challenges such as rebuilding in an insecure environment, ensuring the sustainability of completed projects, and measuring program results.
... according to senior military officials, the insurgency in Iraq has grown in size, complexity, and intensity and has affected reconstruction priorities.
... restoring and sustaining Iraq’s crude oil production and export capacity have been slower than originally planned, and these levels were lower in May 2005 than in March 2003. Similarly,Iraq’s overall power generation through May 2005 was lower than before the 2003 conflict, although power generation exceeded this level in the latter part of June 2005. Progress in the water sector is difficult to measure, and some completed water construction projects are not functioning as intended. Finally, health care projects to expand the availability of basic health care, such as constructing facilities and providing medical equipment, are under way as of May 2005.
In October 2004, the administration reported that it had reallocated appropriated funds from the $18.4 billion fiscal year 2004 emergency supplemental based on a review of all U.S. reconstruction funding priorities. The administration reported that it had reprogrammed about $1.8 billion to security and law enforcement and about $1.2 billion to economic and private sector development and governance activities. These funds were reallocated from future water and electricity infrastructure projects. In addition, about $450 million in the oil sector had been reprogrammed from refined fuel imports to oil reconstruction projects.
In April 2005, the administration reported that it had reallocated $832 million—$225 million for job creation activities and $607 million for essential services projects and programs. To fund these efforts, the embassy cancelled five longer term potable water projects and future energy projects.
International donors have pledged about $13.6 billion in support of Iraq reconstruction over a 4-year period from 2004 through 2007. Of this amount, about $10 billion, or 70 percent, is in the form of loans, primarily from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Donars have pledged the remaining $3.6 billion as grants, to be provided multilaterally or bilaterally.
Initial activities to restart the oil infrastructure have largely been completed; however, activities to sustain production and export levels have been slower than originally planned and these levels remained below pre- March 2003 conflict capacity, as of May 2005. Progress has been made in rehabilitating electric facilities and generation capacity has been increased.
While the water and sanitation program has made some progress toward completing a reduced scope of activities, this progress has been difficult to measure and some completed projects have not functioned as intended. The U.S. program to expand basic health care has made progress in helping reestablish health services in Iraq, but larger health infrastructure projects remained under way as of May 2005.
Considerable looting after Operation Iraqi Freedom and continued attacks on crude and refined product pipelines have contributed to Iraq’s reduced oil production and export capacities.
In responding to our draft report, State indicated that this level of attacks [to oil pipelines in 2004] demonstrates the effectiveness of the insurgency in Iraq and the inability of coalition forces to register the security of the oil infrastructure as a high priority.
The electricity sector faces a number of challenges to meeting Iraq’s electricity needs, including the lack of appropriate fuel supplies, Iraqi operation and maintenance capacity, the unstable security environment, financing needs for distribution projects, and effective management of electricity generation and distribution.
As of May 2005, U.S.-funded projects reportedly had added or restored about 1900 megawatts of generating capacity to Iraq’s power grid. However, U.S. program and contracting officials have raised concerns about the ability of the Ministry of Electricity and local power plant operators to sustain the added generation capacity.
Iraq produced more than 100,000 megawatt-hours of electricity most days between July and November 2004; however, production dropped below prewar production levels through May 2005, varying between 51,000 and 99,800 megawatt-hours daily. In commenting on our draft report, State noted that planned outages are necessary operational procedures to ensure reliable and sustainable operations at the plants and that the central reason for high unplanned outages is that Ministry of Electricity workers do not yet have the necessary skills to ensure adequate operations and maintenance practices.
Iraq’s limited accessible supply of natural gas and diesel fuel affects the operation of the new gas combustion turbines provided by the United States and continues to affect the operations and production capacity of Iraq’s electrical power plants. [...] Due to limited access to natural gas, some gas combustion turbines at Iraqi power plants are operating on low grade, oil-based fuels. The use of liquid fuels, without adequate equipment modification and fuel treatment, decreases the power output of the turbines by up to 50 percent, requires three times more maintenance, and could result in equipment failure and damage that significantly reduces the life of the equipment, according to U.S. and Iraqi power plant officials.
[...] in December 2004, the Iraqis’ inability to operate a recently overhauled plant at Bayji led to a widespread power outage. [...] U.S. officials said that contractors installed the equipment and provided the Iraqis onsite training in operating the new or refurbished equipment. However, Iraqi power plant officials from 13 locations throughout Iraq, including Bayji, indicated that the training did not adequately prepare their staff to operate and maintain the new gas turbine engines. [...] A June 29, 2005, USAID Inspector General report stated that until the operations and maintenance challenges are addressed at both the Iraqi power plants and ministry levels and practices at the power plants are significantly improved, reports of damaged equipment and infrastructure will continue and the electrical infrastructure rebuilt and refurbished by USAID’s program will remain at risk of sustaining damage following its transfer to the Ministry of Electricity.
In March 2004, the United States awarded a $19 million contract to train and equip Iraq’s Electrical Power Security Service to protect electrical infrastructure, including power plants, transmission lines, and Ministry of Electricity officials. Although the program was designed to train 6,000 guards over a 2-year period, fewer than 340 guards had been trained when the contract was terminated early.
The Ministry of Electricity estimates that Iraq needs about $20 billion to restore its electricity sector, including over $3 billion to update the distribution network system, that provides electricity from the distribution station to the end user. The activities of the U.S. assistance program have focused on generation, transmission, and distribution projects to improve the electricity sector and have provided about $100 million to address the provision of power from the distribution station to the end user.
Experts indicate that the demand for electricity has increased dramatically since UN sanctions were removed in 2003 and estimate that the demand for electricity will exceed 8,500 megawatts this summer. In commenting on our draft report, the State department stated that the demand had passed 8,500 megawatts and may reach 9,000 megawatts.
State reallocations have reduced available U.S. funding for improving Iraq’s severely degraded water and sanitation sector from a peak of $4.6 billion to a current level of $2.4 billion. The United States has made some progress in completing large and small water and sanitation projects, but it is difficult to determine the impact of its reconstruction effort on this sector due to limited performance data and measures. The U.S. reconstruction program has also suffered from delays in completing projects, and some completed projects lack sufficient Iraqi staff and supplies to function properly or are not operating at all due to a lack of electricity and diesel fuel.
As of April 5, 2005, the State Department had reallocated funding for water and sanitation to other priorities such as security, thus reducing available funding by 48 percent to about $2.4 billion.
USAID’s accomplishments included the repair of six sewage treatment plants, two water treatment plants, and a primary urban water supply in southern Iraq. As of April 3, 2005, State reported that 64 projects were complete and 185 were in progress. However, State was unable to provide a list of those completed projects, which would enable us to evaluate the significance of the project numbers in terms of scope of work, cost, or size.
The effect of U.S. water and sanitation sector reconstruction is difficult to quantify, and metrics used by U.S. agencies to track progress do not provide a complete picture of results. The program has encountered delays in execution due to security conditions and other factors, and completed projects are at risk of failing due to lack of needed staff and supplies after transfer to the Iraqis.
In commenting on our draft report, USAID said that the agency tracks increases in the
amount of water treated and estimates increases in beneficiary numbers. However, these metrics do not address the quality of water and sanitation services in Iraq, which may hinder the U.S. ability to gauge progress toward its goal of providing essential services. For example, because of problems with the distribution network, water that is potable at the treatment plants may be contaminated by the time it reaches users.
While U.S. agencies have completed initial activities to reestablish Iraqi health services, larger infrastructure, equipment, and training projects to restore and expand the availability of basic health care are still under way. The Iraqi health sector faces a number of challenges in providing basic and preventive health services, including procurement and delivery of medical equipment and supplies and measuring program results.
According to agency reporting, initial activities to reestablish Iraqi health services have been largely completed, including the vaccination of 70 percent of eligible Iraqi children, about 5 million Iraqi children against measles, mumps, and rubella and 3 million children against polio; rehabilitation of 110 health clinics; training of about 700 health care trainers; and the procurement of medical equipment kits for 600 health centers. However, due to the security environment and procurement delays, 37 of 600 medical equipment kits had not been delivered as of May 20, 2005, according to U.S. officials.
[...] according to IRMO reporting, as of April 6, 2005, of the planned renovations for 20 hospitals and new construction for 1 hospital, the United States had started planned renovations on the 20 hospitals and begun construction of the Basrah Pediatric Facility. According to agency documentation, the execution phase of these health projects took longer than expected to complete due to the complex designs for health care facilities, long lead times for medical equipment manufacturing and delivery, construction delays due to land ownership issues, the poor quality of sites, and security issues related to the contractors and the delivery of construction supplies. In addition, according to U.S. officials, the training program for the medical staff for the new primary health clinics was expected to begin in June 2005.
According to the UN/World Bank assessments, Iraqi and agency documents, and U.S. officials, the Iraqi health sector will require continued long-term financial assistance to restore and strengthen its health system to modern day medical levels; support infrastructure maintenance and medical supply requirements; and support management operations—assistance that is not available in the U.S. program or through the international community.
Note 1: This amount does not include $5.7 billion appropriated in May 2005 for assistance to the Iraqi security forces in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror and Tsunami Relief, 2005, P.L. 109-13. In addition, it does not include $325 million from the same Act, which according to DOD, was released for the Commander’s Emergency Response Program in Iraq.
Source: Government Accountability Office
Quotes: From GAO-05-876 Report - Issued July 28, 2005
Note: Bolding is mine. This is an extremely long post, but this report is so comprehensive and informative that abbreviating the post would not have done the report justice.
As of March 2005, the United States, Iraq, and international donors had pledged or made available more than $60 billion for security, governance, and reconstruction efforts in Iraq. The United States provided about $24 billion (for fiscal years 2003 through 2005) largely for security and reconstruction activities. Of this amount, about $18 billion had been obligated and about $9 billion disbursed (see Note 1 below). The State department has reported that since July 2004, about $4.7 billion of $18.4 billion in fiscal year 2004 funding has been realigned from large electricity and water projects to security, economic development, and smaller immediate impact projects.
The U.S. has completed projects in Iraq that have helped to restore basic services, such as rehabilitating oil wells and refineries, increasing electrical generation capacity, restoring water treatment plants, and reestablishing Iraqi basic health care services. However, as of May 2005, Iraq’s crude oil production and overall power generation were lower than before the 2003 conflict, although power levels have increased recently; some completed water projects were not functioning as intended; and construction at hospital and clinics is under way. Reconstruction efforts continue to face challenges such as rebuilding in an insecure environment, ensuring the sustainability of completed projects, and measuring program results.
... according to senior military officials, the insurgency in Iraq has grown in size, complexity, and intensity and has affected reconstruction priorities.
In October 2004, the administration reported that it had reallocated appropriated funds from the $18.4 billion fiscal year 2004 emergency supplemental based on a review of all U.S. reconstruction funding priorities. The administration reported that it had reprogrammed about $1.8 billion to security and law enforcement and about $1.2 billion to economic and private sector development and governance activities. These funds were reallocated from future water and electricity infrastructure projects. In addition, about $450 million in the oil sector had been reprogrammed from refined fuel imports to oil reconstruction projects.
In April 2005, the administration reported that it had reallocated $832 million—$225 million for job creation activities and $607 million for essential services projects and programs. To fund these efforts, the embassy cancelled five longer term potable water projects and future energy projects.
International donors have pledged about $13.6 billion in support of Iraq reconstruction over a 4-year period from 2004 through 2007. Of this amount, about $10 billion, or 70 percent, is in the form of loans, primarily from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Donars have pledged the remaining $3.6 billion as grants, to be provided multilaterally or bilaterally.
Initial activities to restart the oil infrastructure have largely been completed; however, activities to sustain production and export levels have been slower than originally planned and these levels remained below pre- March 2003 conflict capacity, as of May 2005. Progress has been made in rehabilitating electric facilities and generation capacity has been increased.
While the water and sanitation program has made some progress toward completing a reduced scope of activities, this progress has been difficult to measure and some completed projects have not functioned as intended. The U.S. program to expand basic health care has made progress in helping reestablish health services in Iraq, but larger health infrastructure projects remained under way as of May 2005.
Considerable looting after Operation Iraqi Freedom and continued attacks on crude and refined product pipelines have contributed to Iraq’s reduced oil production and export capacities.
In responding to our draft report, State indicated that this level of attacks [to oil pipelines in 2004] demonstrates the effectiveness of the insurgency in Iraq and the inability of coalition forces to register the security of the oil infrastructure as a high priority.
The electricity sector faces a number of challenges to meeting Iraq’s electricity needs, including the lack of appropriate fuel supplies, Iraqi operation and maintenance capacity, the unstable security environment, financing needs for distribution projects, and effective management of electricity generation and distribution.
As of May 2005, U.S.-funded projects reportedly had added or restored about 1900 megawatts of generating capacity to Iraq’s power grid. However, U.S. program and contracting officials have raised concerns about the ability of the Ministry of Electricity and local power plant operators to sustain the added generation capacity.
Iraq produced more than 100,000 megawatt-hours of electricity most days between July and November 2004; however, production dropped below prewar production levels through May 2005, varying between 51,000 and 99,800 megawatt-hours daily. In commenting on our draft report, State noted that planned outages are necessary operational procedures to ensure reliable and sustainable operations at the plants and that the central reason for high unplanned outages is that Ministry of Electricity workers do not yet have the necessary skills to ensure adequate operations and maintenance practices.
Iraq’s limited accessible supply of natural gas and diesel fuel affects the operation of the new gas combustion turbines provided by the United States and continues to affect the operations and production capacity of Iraq’s electrical power plants. [...] Due to limited access to natural gas, some gas combustion turbines at Iraqi power plants are operating on low grade, oil-based fuels. The use of liquid fuels, without adequate equipment modification and fuel treatment, decreases the power output of the turbines by up to 50 percent, requires three times more maintenance, and could result in equipment failure and damage that significantly reduces the life of the equipment, according to U.S. and Iraqi power plant officials.
[...] in December 2004, the Iraqis’ inability to operate a recently overhauled plant at Bayji led to a widespread power outage. [...] U.S. officials said that contractors installed the equipment and provided the Iraqis onsite training in operating the new or refurbished equipment. However, Iraqi power plant officials from 13 locations throughout Iraq, including Bayji, indicated that the training did not adequately prepare their staff to operate and maintain the new gas turbine engines. [...] A June 29, 2005, USAID Inspector General report stated that until the operations and maintenance challenges are addressed at both the Iraqi power plants and ministry levels and practices at the power plants are significantly improved, reports of damaged equipment and infrastructure will continue and the electrical infrastructure rebuilt and refurbished by USAID’s program will remain at risk of sustaining damage following its transfer to the Ministry of Electricity.
In March 2004, the United States awarded a $19 million contract to train and equip Iraq’s Electrical Power Security Service to protect electrical infrastructure, including power plants, transmission lines, and Ministry of Electricity officials. Although the program was designed to train 6,000 guards over a 2-year period, fewer than 340 guards had been trained when the contract was terminated early.
The Ministry of Electricity estimates that Iraq needs about $20 billion to restore its electricity sector, including over $3 billion to update the distribution network system, that provides electricity from the distribution station to the end user. The activities of the U.S. assistance program have focused on generation, transmission, and distribution projects to improve the electricity sector and have provided about $100 million to address the provision of power from the distribution station to the end user.
Experts indicate that the demand for electricity has increased dramatically since UN sanctions were removed in 2003 and estimate that the demand for electricity will exceed 8,500 megawatts this summer. In commenting on our draft report, the State department stated that the demand had passed 8,500 megawatts and may reach 9,000 megawatts.
State reallocations have reduced available U.S. funding for improving Iraq’s severely degraded water and sanitation sector from a peak of $4.6 billion to a current level of $2.4 billion. The United States has made some progress in completing large and small water and sanitation projects, but it is difficult to determine the impact of its reconstruction effort on this sector due to limited performance data and measures. The U.S. reconstruction program has also suffered from delays in completing projects, and some completed projects lack sufficient Iraqi staff and supplies to function properly or are not operating at all due to a lack of electricity and diesel fuel.
As of April 5, 2005, the State Department had reallocated funding for water and sanitation to other priorities such as security, thus reducing available funding by 48 percent to about $2.4 billion.
USAID’s accomplishments included the repair of six sewage treatment plants, two water treatment plants, and a primary urban water supply in southern Iraq. As of April 3, 2005, State reported that 64 projects were complete and 185 were in progress. However, State was unable to provide a list of those completed projects, which would enable us to evaluate the significance of the project numbers in terms of scope of work, cost, or size.
The effect of U.S. water and sanitation sector reconstruction is difficult to quantify, and metrics used by U.S. agencies to track progress do not provide a complete picture of results. The program has encountered delays in execution due to security conditions and other factors, and completed projects are at risk of failing due to lack of needed staff and supplies after transfer to the Iraqis.
In commenting on our draft report, USAID said that the agency tracks increases in the
amount of water treated and estimates increases in beneficiary numbers. However, these metrics do not address the quality of water and sanitation services in Iraq, which may hinder the U.S. ability to gauge progress toward its goal of providing essential services. For example, because of problems with the distribution network, water that is potable at the treatment plants may be contaminated by the time it reaches users.
While U.S. agencies have completed initial activities to reestablish Iraqi health services, larger infrastructure, equipment, and training projects to restore and expand the availability of basic health care are still under way. The Iraqi health sector faces a number of challenges in providing basic and preventive health services, including procurement and delivery of medical equipment and supplies and measuring program results.
According to agency reporting, initial activities to reestablish Iraqi health services have been largely completed, including the vaccination of 70 percent of eligible Iraqi children, about 5 million Iraqi children against measles, mumps, and rubella and 3 million children against polio; rehabilitation of 110 health clinics; training of about 700 health care trainers; and the procurement of medical equipment kits for 600 health centers. However, due to the security environment and procurement delays, 37 of 600 medical equipment kits had not been delivered as of May 20, 2005, according to U.S. officials.
[...] according to IRMO reporting, as of April 6, 2005, of the planned renovations for 20 hospitals and new construction for 1 hospital, the United States had started planned renovations on the 20 hospitals and begun construction of the Basrah Pediatric Facility. According to agency documentation, the execution phase of these health projects took longer than expected to complete due to the complex designs for health care facilities, long lead times for medical equipment manufacturing and delivery, construction delays due to land ownership issues, the poor quality of sites, and security issues related to the contractors and the delivery of construction supplies. In addition, according to U.S. officials, the training program for the medical staff for the new primary health clinics was expected to begin in June 2005.
According to the UN/World Bank assessments, Iraqi and agency documents, and U.S. officials, the Iraqi health sector will require continued long-term financial assistance to restore and strengthen its health system to modern day medical levels; support infrastructure maintenance and medical supply requirements; and support management operations—assistance that is not available in the U.S. program or through the international community.
Note 1: This amount does not include $5.7 billion appropriated in May 2005 for assistance to the Iraqi security forces in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror and Tsunami Relief, 2005, P.L. 109-13. In addition, it does not include $325 million from the same Act, which according to DOD, was released for the Commander’s Emergency Response Program in Iraq.
