WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- And now for some good news in Iraq: six reports on reconstruction projects across the war-torn country find well managed, effective programs.
The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction issued positive reports on selected programs last week -- a maternity and children's hospital, a prison, five electrical substations, a police training range, and water tanks on an Iraqi military base.
In each case, the projects were found to be well designed, built to specifications, operating as intended and meeting scheduling targets.
The projects are selected from more than 3,600 construction projects funded by Iraq Reconstruction and Relief Funds that will transfer in the near future to the fledgling Iraqi government.
The IRRF is drawn from the initial $18.6 billion in U.S. funds set aside in 2003 for reconstruction
That prospect of the transfer of responsibility for the construction projects has caused concern among some U.S. military and civilian officials in Iraq, who have seen other projects fall into disrepair because of a dysfunctional national bureaucracy, suffer neglect or even sabotage.
However, the SIGIR report on five substations in southern Iraq suggest at least the ministry of electricity may be capable of managing without U.S. involvement. Those substations had been built and handed over to the Iraqi government, and none has sufferend significant deterioration, and all appeared to be secure and in good repair.
\ Still, the inspectors admitted they could not personally visit all five sites because of security concerns so were taking the word of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' personnel on the ground there.
The electricity substations may be in good repair but they are not yet pushing enough electricity. According to the report, they are operating at 36 percent capacity, in large part because all the needed transmission lines had not been hooked up to the buildings.
