Скачать или смотреть Reaction from Iraqi citizens to claims of budget surplus

(7 Aug 2008) SHOTLIST
1. Cars driving through downtown Baghdad
2. Various of workers, working on roadside
3. Various of workers building structure, hammering nails into wood
4. Exterior of shop reading: (Arabic) "al-Sihab Exchange Shop"
5. Various of Foreign Money Exchanger giving Iraqi currency to customer
6. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Abu Seif, Foreign Money exchanger:
"I see only the reconstruction of roadsides which lasted no more than two or three months that are then destroyed. We don't have giant projects. Though our oil revenues have amounted to 79 (b) billion (US dollars) we are begging Western states."
7. Various of Shorja main stree and market:
8. Shop with sign reading: (Arabic) "Abu Ebraheem carpets"
9. Wrapped carpets
10. Various of canned food on display
11. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Basim Jamil Anton, Head of businessmen federation and economic analyst:
"This surplus in budget doesn't mean that Iraq is not in need. Iraq needs more than this amount. It needs more than 200 (b) billion (US) dollars to rehabilitate infrastructure and construct industrial, agricultural and tourist projects in the country. There is a clear-cut dereliction in the implementation of projects because there are no competent contractors and most of the businessmen and contractors have left the country."
12. Wide of people shopping
STORYLINE:
An Iraqi lawmaker close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki defended the government's record on spending for reconstruction, saying on Thursday that US critics were overlooking Baghdad's progress over the past three years.
But a senior Iraqi official and a private Iraqi economic analyst both acknowledged that inefficiency and a cumbersome, inexperienced bureaucracy were still causing delays in many projects aimed at improving the lives of Iraq's 27 (m) million people.
A report on Tuesday by the US General Accounting Office predicted Iraq could finish the year with as much as a 79 (b) billion US dollars cumulative budget surplus due to the influx of oil revenues.
That raised a firestorm in the United States from critics who said American taxpayers were shouldering an unfair share of the reconstruction load at a time when Americans are suffering from high gasoline prices and Iraq is getting rich from oil.
Hassan al-Sineid, a Shiite lawmaker from al-Maliki's Dawa party, said the GAO report was "unrealistic" because it was based on incomplete information.
He said that in 2004, there was no investment budget. In 2005, the investment budget was 3 (b) billion US dollars. In 2007 it was 12 (b) billion US dollars.
He added that in the years before 2008, less than half the investment budget was spent because of the security issue.
He said parliamentary committees were now reviewing government spending programmes to make sure that funds were used properly.
His comments echoed some US officials in Baghdad, who acknowledged that the Iraqis had not spent funds fast enough in the past but that the situation was improving. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is politically sensitive.
They cited problems of inexperienced bureaucrats, shortage of Iraqi contractors and a cumbersome approval process - aimed at curbing corruption - for the delays.
A senior official of the Iraqi Planning Ministry described other problems, including delays in parliament approving the budget, which meant the ministries did not get their money until several months had passed.
Nonetheless, public pressure is strong from the Iraqi people, who want to see progress in boosting the nation's economy after five years of war.

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