BAGHDAD — The United States is training Iraqi
officials how to procure weapons.
Officials said the U.S. military has been sponsoring training for
members of Iraq's Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry. The training has
focused on how to draft and administer tenders for weapons and military
equipment.
"We're trying to establish the ministries capacity for operating an
ethical, effective procurement system," U.S. Army Maj. Jong Lee, a member of
the Joint Contracting Command Iraq/Afghanistan, said.
The U.S. effort comes in wake of an Iraqi government report that Baghdad
has wasted more than $1 billion in weapons procurement funds over the last
year. The audit accused Iraqi ministries of graft and embezzlement and said
many of the weapons ordered were overpriced and obsolete, Middle East Newsline reported.
The U.S. military has quietly confirmed the substance of the report.
Officials said Iraqi security forces are badly in need of armored combat
vehicles, body armor, helicopters, reconnaissance aircraft, patrol vessels
and logistics.
As a result, the military along with the Joint Contracting Command
Iraq/Afghanistan have sponsored a three-day training workshop for dozens of
Iraqi procurement officials in the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry.
Virtually all of the officials were said to have lacked experience in
weapons procurement.
Officials said the U.S.-sponsored training included lectures and
exercises on the principles of procurement, administration of tenders and
payment of contracts. Other lectures focused on ethics and transparency.
Most of the instructors were Iraqis, officials said. They included Iraqi
author and World Bank fellow Numan Salman, whose book "The Iraqi Procurement
Book" has been used by several Iraqi ministries.
"What's presented here is not coming from the coalition or from
Americans," Lee said. "It's coming from Iraqis for Iraqi workers."
Officials said participants were divided into three groups in an
exercise to handle scenarios, such as administering a life support contract
for an Iraqi military installation. Each group was ordered to work as a team
to resolve the challenges of a scenario.
For his part, Salman said Iraqi government procurement skills stagnated
in wake of the 1990 embargo, which stemmed from Baghdad's occupation of
Kuwait. He said the government has not completed a modern procurement
process in 15 years.
"Iraq stayed in one place," Salman said. "Now they need information
about how this is being done in the world. For example, no one has opened a
letter of credit since 1990. This is something they need to learn."
In Washington, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the first commander of
the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, said his former unit
was drafting equipment criteria for Iraqi units. Petraeus said MNSTC-I has
sought to improve the operations of the Defense Ministry and Interior
Ministry "so that soldiers are paid on time, contracts are paid, equipment
is purchased in accordance with the right requirements."
