Iraq Reconstruction News 16 February 2007

Iraq Reconstruction News
16 February 2007


1. Rebuilding Iraq: Reconstruction Progress Hindered by Contracting, Security, and Capacity Challenges, by David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. GAO-07-426T, February 15. http://www2.blogger.com/Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07426thigh.pdf

2. Iraq Weeky Status Report 14 February 2007 http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/80686.pdf

3. SIGIR: Follow-up on SIGIR Recommendations Concerning the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) http://www.sigir.mil/reports/pdf/audits/06-036.pdf

4. Ex-oil minister despairing of Iraq oil future - UPI - HOUSTON, TX, USA -- Former Iraq oil minister Issam Al Chalabi paints a bleak picture for the future of Iraq's oil industry, panning the result of the US-led war, its insistence on passing an oil law, and the situation aboveground hampering development of the resources below it. "Iraq offers nothing but misery and mystery," Chalabi told a plenary this week, during an international energy conference in Houston. http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070216-041202-1777r

5. Results out soon for OSL Iraq drilling. Oil logs being run on 300m section of Bina Bawi-1 well. WITHIN the next couple of weeks, the market will discover whether Oil Search has made a big oil discovery with what to date appears to be its most exciting wildcat exploration well in the Middle East.The company yesterday advised the Australian Stock Exchange drilling has been completed on Bina Bawi-1, its first exploration well in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, where there is potential for discovery of a billion barrel sized oil field. http://www.thenational.com.pg/021607/business2.htm

6. Time to fix the great failure. The Washington press corps has discovered the war -- the self-defeating tug of war between the Pentagon and virtually every other Washington government agency. Two recent articles in the New York Times portrayed the "interagency" struggle as primarily a turf tussle between the Defense Department and the State Department, with culture clash, personal animosities and money (as in budgets) the sources of accelerating friction. http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20070215-080826-4164r.htm

7. Army Engineers Help Build Potable Water Treatment Plant in Iraq. The Umm Qasr water treatment plant, one of the six largest infrastructure projects in southern Iraq, provides potable water for Umm Qasr port facilities and the town of Umm Qasr, thanks in part to the efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. http://www.waterinfocenter.com/Army-Engineers-Help-Build-Potable-Water-Treatment-Plant-in-Iraq-newsPiece13033

8. DNO Reports on Ops in Iraq, Yemen. In 2006 DNO continued to build on its strong E&P position in Norway and the Middle East through an active exploration and development strategy. The main focus in 2006 was transferring resources to reserves at low cost. Going forward DNO will take this to the next stage by transferring new reserves into production. http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=41279

9. Central Bank of Iraq plans to curb inflation (MENAFN) Officials at the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) said that the bank is considering taking measures to curb inflation which hiked to 70 percent last year on soaring oil prices, Iraq Directory reported. http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093143107

10. Assertion of more Iraq waste goes unsupported - http://www.govexec.com/ - House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., opened his latest hearing into the troubled Iraq reconstruction program Thursday by declaring that a government auditor had discovered $10 billion in "questioned and unsupported costs" and that the potential total waste, fraud and abuse could be much higher. But the committee's witnesses -- three of the top government fiscal watchdogs -- deflated Waxman's $10 billion number and refused to endorse his projection of "tens of billions more in waste." The heads of the Government Accountability Office, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the Defense Contract Audit Agency did provide ample evidence of reconstruction contracts that were poorly managed, wasteful and, in some cases, fraudulent, with the amounts of possibly misused funds mounting into the billions. Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=36149&dcn=e_gvet

11. GRD Reconstruction Fact Sheets January 2007 http://www.grd.usace.army.mil/news/factsheets/docs/January_2007.pdf

12. World Bank adopts plan to support electricity sector in Iraq http://www.aswataliraq.info/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=37172&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

13. North Baghdad community opens new girls' school http://www.grd.usace.army.mil/news/releases/NR07-02-12.pdf

14. Success Story: CBI Pushes Through Reforms to Reserve Requirements. USAID economic advisors work with the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) to develop monetary policy in line with international best practices. After 18 months of effort, USAID Economic Governance II advisors working with CBI staff have finally won support from the Iraqi Ministry of Justice to enact changes in the CBI reserve requirement regulation that will help maintain price stability in Iraq. http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/accomplishments/eg_ss0107_cbi.html

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