"MAYORS' REVOLT" IS HIGHLIGHT OF ATYPICAL RECONSTRUCTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HILLAH 000010 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 1/19/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON KDEM IZ SUBJECT: "MAYORS' REVOLT" IS HIGHLIGHT OF ATYPICAL RECONSTRUCTION MEETING IN BABIL HILLAH 00000010 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: Charles F. Hunter, Babil PRT Leader, REO Al-Hillah, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (U) This is a PRT Babil cable. ¶2. (C) Summary: The continuation of an unfinished meeting of the Babil Provincial Reconstruction and Development Committee (PRDC) did not check off every agenda item but did yield several unexpected positive developments. Complaints from two mayors about a key committee member's monopoly on data and decisions prompted the governor to advocate greater information sharing among the Iraqi representatives. In addition, the governor acknowledged the need for the prioritized list of projects the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) has long been requesting. He also offered to host the next meeting, which he insisted could not wait another month and instead will be two weeks hence. These gestures, while not enough to confirm a trend, bode well for both transparency and engagement from some of the Babil PRT's most important partners. End summary. -------------- --- AFTER AN UNEVENTFUL START~ -------------- --- ¶3. (C) Babil Governor Salem Saleh Mehdi Al-Muslimawi chaired the January 17 meeting of the Provincial Reconstruction and Development Committee, a continuation of an incomplete session held on December 27, at the Al-Hillah Regional Embassy Office (REO). His presence came as a minor surprise, as his deputy had led the earlier meeting. Recently back from the hajj (Note: He has gone at least once and maybe twice before, a fact that prompted grumbling among the populace this year. End note.), the governor began by noting that many pilgrims he encountered criticized the Iraqis for not fighting harder to oust the Americans. The governor said that he told them that Iraqis needed peace and a chance to rebuild their country, not to wage jihad. After running through boilerplate criticism of the U.S. for not doing enough to rebuild the country or provide funds for projects in Babil, he invited the American side to begin with their agenda items. ¶4. (SBU) The first issue for discussion was project priorities for the approximately 7.5 million USD in Economic Support Funds (ESF) for the current year. The Provincial Council's chief engineer, Qasim Hamood Jarrah, had informed the PRT several days earlier that the Iraqi side had concluded that one of the two projects they had put forward, a major road intersection/overpass on the south end of Al-Hillah, would cost far more than the amount available and would therefore be paid for with funds from the central government. Thus the remaining proposal, a maternity hospital in the north Babil city of Musayyib, would be the only one sent forward to Baghdad. -------------- ~THE MAYORS REVOLT -------------- ¶5. (C) At this news, which they were hearing for the first time, the mayors of Mahawil and Al-Hillah initiated an animated exchange among the Iraqi participants. Why were they learning of these things from the Americans, they wondered aloud, rather than from their own government's officials? They complained that Eng. Qasim, who was absent (having made the familiar, groundless claim that he, and in this case the Provincial Council chair as well, had been "insulted" at the REO entrance), did not consult with anyone. The result was that the only time they learned about what projects were being funded in their districts was when they attended PRDCs and received the lists furnished by the U.S. A pre-PRDC meeting to share information internally had happened only once many months ago, they contended, and should be revived. ¶6. (C) The governor seemed surprised himself but quickly reassumed command. He was forming a technical advisory committee, he said, that would also include expertise from Babil University. Though not explicit about calling for pre-PRDC consultations, he seemed well disposed to the idea. (Comment: His lack of awareness of how the PRDC process should and does function was telling in itself. End comment.) Sensing an opportunity, PRT representatives raised their longstanding desire to have a truly prioritized project list rather than simply a compilation of ideas with no discernable hierarchy to it. The governor took that point on board as well, saying that the Iraqi side would work on it. ¶7. (SBU) Governor Salem then noted that he had an appointment at the university at 12:30, so the PRDC discussion, which had begun an hour past the appointed 10:00 start time, would need to come HILLAH 00000010 002.2 OF 002 to a close. The agenda had proposed February 14 for the next meeting, but the governor objected that this would be too long to wait. The next one is now scheduled for January 31 at the governor's office, the first time the Iraqis have offered to host. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶8. (C) Though the PRDC again failed to cover all the agenda items from the original December meeting, this week's developments are encouraging on several fronts. First, the mayors' revolt could signal the beginning of the end of Eng. Qasim's monopoly on information and decision-making on everything concerning reconstruction projects in the province. Transparency would increase significantly if this were to come to pass. Second, we seemed to gain a little traction on the long-pending request for a usable prioritized project list; the governor repeated in a separate meeting with PRT leader (septel) that such a list would be forthcoming. Last, the governor himself may be showing signs of wanting to demonstrate more leadership. From heeding the mayors' complaints to feeling a little urgency about how soon the next meeting should happen to taking our offer to come to his location - thereby taking away any excuse for any Iraqis not to attend - he behaved much more like what one would expect of the province's chief executive. This meeting got the year off to a good start for the PRDC. We hope these developments were not merely a fluke and will await the January 31 meeting for a sense of what the months ahead may hold. HUNTER