And it seems, they can be awarded contracts for various reconstruction projects. However if the company then fails to deliver in the future, the firm and its directors are publicly blacklisted and barred from tendering for any other contracts for up to three years.
In April 2011, Iraq’s Ministry of Planning declared 433 companies from all around the country blacklisted because they had not completed projects according to contracts. In July 2011, another 243 companies were added to that list.
Some of the companies on the federal black list may be tendering for contracts in Basra but currently it is uncertain how many. On a state level, the Basra provincial council saw fit to declare only four local companies blacklisted.
The head of the state’s contracts department Walaa Abdul-Kareem Ubaid said that the firms had been blacklisted because they had not fulfilled contractual obligations in a number of projects, including resurfacing roads and sewage system maintenance.
However the small number of blacklisted companies in Basra raised doubts among observers. “The small number of blacklisted companies in Basra province should be an indicator that projects are being carried out properly,” Abbas al-Jourani, a leading figure in Basra's Communist Party commented. “But this is not the case. Dozens of companies who were awarded contracts did not fulfil their obligations.”
And al-Aberseem suspects that officials in Basra are simply accepting incomplete, or insufficient, results. “Not one company has completed any of the projects in a proper manner,” he said.
Provincial council member Majida Kadhim, who sits on the committee for development and reconstruction in Basra agreed, telling NIQASH that the number of blacklisted firms should actually be higher. “Some were lucky,” she said, “because their names were not listed. This is because there is a rampant corruption in all areas.”
As an example, the deputy chairman of the Basra council had recently demanded that one firm involved in a sewage system project be blacklisted for incomplete work. It had not been blacklisted; the company was owned by a local MP, Abdul Hadi al-Hassani.
A source at the council spoke to NIQASH on condition of anonymity. He said that many project contracts were awarded to certain local companies directly, without going through any competitive tendering process. This was done under the pretext of streamlining the process and, as the source said, “it raised doubts about the presence of corruption and influence and nepotism.”
Shafaq News / The municipality of Basra revealed on Monday, signing investment contracts between the municipality and investment companies to build apartments and residential units in Basra, indicating that the contracts oblige the conducting parties to plant a green belt of trees around those complexes.
The director of Basra municipality, Abdul Zahra Mohammed Sewede said in an interview with "Shafaq News", that “two investment contracts have been signed between al-Saqer al-Jareh company for real estate investments and investor , Retha Saleh where the first contract includes building 1822 housing units that include 1468 apartments distributed on 84 different residential building. "
He pointed out that " adding a clause to the contract and that the investor must plant green belt separating the two pieces in a duration of implementation of the two projects up to 5 years from the date of delivering the property."
Basra is witnessing since the mid-nineties a housing crisis that has worsened greatly in the past few years as a result of high population growth and escalating immigration from other southern provinces, most notably the repercussions of house prices crisis and residential plots dramatically.
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