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(回答先: 米国、イラクの復興事業を延期 ＜イスラム・メモ＞ 投稿者 草の根 日時 2004 年 1 月 01 日 08:45:26)
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB107282647463349600,00.html
Bush to Defer Some Iraq Work Until After Transfer of Power
By NEIL KING JR. and YOCHI DREAZEN
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The Bush administration has decided, after weeks of infighting, to defer about $4 billion in Iraq reconstruction work until the U.S. cedes political control to an interim Iraqi government this summer.
The decision substantially lowers the amount of work to be handled by a special Pentagon-run office in Baghdad that was originally created to manage most of the $18.6 billion set aside for Iraq reconstruction. But U.S. officials said they wanted to postpone some work until after the June 30 transfer of sovereignty, in part to help maintain leverage over the next Iraqi government.
There are also indications that the administration might, in the later round of spending, become open to awarding contracts to companies from countries such as France, Germany and Russia, which are now barred from the process. Administration officials have hinted that they are looking for ways to reward countries that agreed to forgive large amounts of Iraqi debt, as those three countries have.
The spending compromise was struck at a White House meeting Tuesday morning. It is meant to end nearly a month of confusion that has delayed plans to award as many as 26 huge contracts by early February to rebuild Iraq's battered infrastructure and government. The recent feud over Iraq spending within the State Department, the Pentagon and parts of the White House highlights the difficulties resulting from a change in U.S. strategy from long-term occupation to a much quicker turnover of sovereignty to the Iraqis.
The administration's top reconstruction official in Baghdad, Ret. Adm. David Nash, threatened to resign at the height of the infighting earlier this month. He has now agreed to stay on with a reduced workload.
Under the new arrangement, Adm. Nash's Program Management Office will now directly oversee work valued at about $5 billion to be awarded in coming months, according to several U.S. officials. Money being held back until the second half of 2004 will be siphoned from projects originally earmarked for the Baghdad office, known as the PMO. That $4 billion then will be doled out by agencies within a newly opened U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, where Adm. Nash is expected to work once the transfer of authority is completed.
In an interview, Adm. Nash said the plan now is to issue fewer contracts in the near term but make sure that each is substantial enough to entice international contractors.
U.S. officials had planned to release detailed contract documents earlier this month so that companies could formally bid for work by early January. Adm. Nash said the new batch of documents will come out over the next several weeks and that companies will be given 30 days to return formal bids.
The administration is supposed to supply Congress by Monday with details of how it plans to spend the $18.6 billion in Iraq. A spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget said the White House intends to meet the deadline. Other officials said work on that document is far from completed.
Beyond the $5 billion in construction contracts and the $4 billion to be put in reserve, the administration plans to spend a little more than $6 billion over the next year to enhance Iraq's security services and rebuild the country's army. Another $2 billion is set aside for reconstruction work under the U.S. Agency for International Development, while the Army Corps of Engineers and the Air Force together will get about $1 billion for other projects.
U.S. authorities on the ground in Iraq worry that delays in rebuilding are exacerbating the security problem. "It's the 'man on the moon' problem: Iraqis wonder how we can do that and topple Saddam and still not be able to get gas flowing again," Gen. David Petraeus, the top American official in the northern city of Mosul, said in a recent interview.
The compromise comes just a few weeks after Adm. Nash wrote a letter of resignation and left for the U.S. with his senior staff, unsure if he would return to Baghdad.
Adm. Nash said in an interview around that time that he feared that spreading the contracting process among several U.S. agencies could lead to projects being approved without central oversight or adequate levels of accountability for the rebuilding efforts. In a Dec. 16 e-mail to an aide to Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, Mr. Nash added, "I personally feel that we are setting ourselves up for failure."
Tuesday, Mr. Nash said he will still be in charge of assuring that all Iraq reconstruction work goes according to plan. "Others may think that my job has been reduced, but I don't see it that way," he said.
He said the decision to put money aside until later assures that the administration "retains its flexibility to react."
--Carla Anne Robbins contributed to this article.
Write to Neil King Jr. at neil.king@wsj.com and Yochi Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com
Updated December 31, 2003 3:24 a.m.
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