Iraqi businessmen complain about American primitive accumulation

[Jurriaan Bendien <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

One of the most common accusations levelled against the US-led occupation is
that it was simply paving the way for a subsequent corporate invasion.
Monolithic US companies with strong ties to the administration of US
President George Bush have been handed huge contracts to repair the damage
wrought by war. But despite assurances that the underlying motivation for
this work is the revival of the Iraqi economy, people are starting to doubt
how much is for the sake of Iraqis and how much is for the international
companies to make a fast buck.

"From the work that we are handling, 41 of 75 is the latest tally for
subcontracting which has been given out to Iraqi companies," said Francis
Canavan, spokesperson for Bechtel who received a $680 million contract for
handling civil reconstruction from USAID. "These range from five to
six-figure contracts reaching up to the low millions."

But it is the sizes of these contracts which are leading Iraqi businessmen
to the conclusion that they are getting a raw deal. The USAID website lists
a string of multi-million dollar contract awards which have been given to US
companies [... But t]he biggest contract the businessmen at the KBR meeting
had heard of was for building a new gas station. (...) more than 4 months
since the Bush declared the end of hostilities, Iraqi companies are still
finding it difficult to impose themselves on the market for carrying out the
reconstruction work of their own country.

"For example, some of the tenders stipulate that you have to have certain
brands for the objects that are contained within your project," said another
businessman at the KBR meeting. "This makes it impossible for us to make a
successful bid since we cannot get hold of these materials." "The objective
should be re-construction and not a transformation of the economy and the
country," said Rania Masri, from the US-based Institute of Southern Studies
which on Aug. 5 launched the Campaign to Stop the War Profiteers and End the
Corporate Invasion of Iraq. Masri, an author on Iraq, believes that there
should be a "full open-bidding process, with preference given to Iraqi
companies. The companies would only reconstruct as it was before the war, no
redesigning."

This is a departure from a scenario many see as inevitable in post-Saddam
Iraq -- privatization of public services. Iraqis are used to paying minimal
bills for amenities such as water, electricity and telephones. In a country
where a third of the population was employed by the state, citizens will not
be accustomed to paying anything like what international companies would
charge for these services. Before the invasion, electricity cost around ID
1000 per month, and Saddam even gave petrol away for free at times. It is
not certain that the administration will invite bids for the distribution of
public services, but it would be follow the general pattern were this to
happen. (...)

Perhaps advocates of privatization are right to think that this would be the
most speedy and efficient way to get Iraq's public services up and running
again. There is certainly a huge amount of investment needed. "Privatization
in itself is no bad thing, the important factor is accountability, based on
need, not price," said Pratap Chaterjee, the managing director of CorpWatch,
a non-profit activist group monitoring the practices of multinational
companies. "Secrecy is the problem - the lack of transparency in these deals
signed behind closed doors."

Here lies the most worrying aspect for Iraqis -- nobody knows what the
future holds for public services and the economy in general. The US-led
administration is keeping tight control over what information is available
(...).

Complete article:
http://www.baghdadbulletin.com/pageArticle.php?article_id=162&cat_id=1&PHPSE
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