Iraqi Writer of a Blog Assassinated While Investigating possible USAID Corruption
An Iraqi writer of a blog called BlogIraq, was recently killed in an apparent attempt to meet someone who had documents related to a corruption issue regarding USAID.
I don't have any more info, but read the entry below, and my comments about how corruption or bribes could have occured on USAID managed reconstruction contracts.
I would think it would be rare that anyone in USAID was involved in corruption, since many are ex PeaceCorps workers, but USAID staff don't go into the streets and towns of Iraq. Instead they issue vague RFP's and use third party Iraqi contractors (and maybe a US Prime contractor) to actually go into Iraqi communities for various projects.
It would not surprise me that a USAID sub-contractor was involved in corruption because USAID doesn't actually go into the field themselves to verify work. There have been GAO and SIGIR audit reports on this issue. In contrast, I knew IRMO Senior Advisors who went into the Iraqi communities and Ministries three times or more a week (in 2004-2006). One of them, the Sr. Advisor for the Water Ministry, was in a Hummer convoy when a roadside bomb went of and killed the gunner, and damaged the nerves of his face for several weeks.
Here is an example of how such corruption can happen: In 2004 and early 2005, everyone in the US Embassy, Baghdad ate in a dining room inside the Presidental Palace. There were big round tables and people just joined a table and the conversation, so you learned lots of stuff. I would ask anyone who worked in reconstruction, such as US contractor reps, if they encountered corruption, and learned a lot. In one case, a contractor rep who worked on renovating and rebuilding Fire Departments said that at each city they visited, the local Fire Chief would be sitting on the land, and refused access until he received a bribe of $5000. In the case of that contractor, they paid it. Apparently, there was no clause in the contract that said they were not to pay bribes or that they were to report any bribe requests to a hotline. In contrast, on another day, I met the contractor representative for a US firm in charge of rebuilding another type of building - it could have been schools or medical clinics, etc. His approach when asked for bribes was to immediately locate the local tribal chieftain and tell them that his firm would leave the area and the building would not be built unless the Chieftain made the bribe requests be retracted. In almost all cases, that was a successful method and the work continued without having to pay bribes. So, whichever agency (USACE or USAID) that managed the reconstruction of fire department buildings should be slapped around. Do I have proof, or names - no, and they probably hid the bribe payments under some other account, but it was clear to me I was getting the straight scoop.
Lessons Learned:
- Don't use USAID for reconstruction in conflict areas, because they are not willing to go into the field and personally verify the quality of work.
- Make sure all contractors have a clause in their agreement prohibiting the payment of bribes, AND also defined a reporting process of bribe requests to an independent group or IG (or CPI in Iraq before the bad guys took them over) that would follow up an arrest the requesters.
- Develop and publish a guide of alternative actions to handle bribe requests, such as the above usage of Tribal elders to remove bribe requesters. Also clearly layout strict guidelines to refuse construction work if bribes are requested - send the contractor to another location. In the example above about bribes to Fire Chiefs, the word spread of successful requests, so the next location always resulted in another Fire Chief demanding a bribe.
vj
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from
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/05/17/iraq-blogiraq-is-dead/
Iraq: BlogIraq is Dead
Saturday, May 17th, 2008 @ 23:17 UTC
by Salam Adil
I am sad to report the death of Ahmed the writer of the blog BlogIraq who was murdered in the Al-Mansour district of Baghdad. May he rest in peace. Iraqi bloggers are a close-knit community and we mourn the death of fellow bloggers as if it is from our own family. There is not one family in Iraq that has been untouched by the violence that gripped our country and Iraqi bloggers are no different. His friend, Mohammed Alani, who helped set up the blog, wrote on BlogIraq:
Ahmed (BlogIraq) is dead. He was killed in Baghdad on April 11th, 2008… He had an appointment that day with a guy he knew. This guy was supposed to get him some documents that prove corruption in some USAID office back in Baghdad. I don't have complete details about it. Anyway, he and the guy bringing the documents were killed at their meeting place in Mansour district in Baghdad…
His brother in-law found him dead with his friend in Mansour district in one of the small streets there. Thank God his body was found, unlike many of our friends who were killed or just vanished without a trace.
When I first setup this blog for him, he gave me the admin password of his blog and I gave him the password of mine. We agreed that whoever dies first, the other should write about it in his blog. Its just my bad luck that he died first. I can only think of his 20 months old daughter. Shes about the same age as my daughter, Aya.
May God take revenge of those who killed him and orphaned his lovely daughter.
Abbas Hawazin adds: “I am feeling so much anger boiling, I tried to cry but I couldn't.”
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