“But the way they are dealing with these issues is not neutral. They are really slow – they don’t have enough vehicles to take the assessors around town – and there is favouritism and nepotism at work. Some people are even driving the assessors around town themselves so they can inspect the sites,” he adds. “But this further undermines the committees’ integrity because that means other people who are also waiting, must wait even longer.”
Since the committees started work in May, they have received around 17,000 applications for compensation, says the mayor of the Ramadi district, Ibrahim al-Awsaj. “By the time all of the people of Ramadi return we expect to receive up to 50,000 applications,” he noted.
The committees are made up of around 60 specialists, including engineers and staff from various ministries, the mayor explains. “They have managed to check around 3,000 applications so far and they are all working full time, making between 30 and 50 visits every day.”
In fact, al-Awsaj notes, work is proceeding faster than expected. The committees had thought they would only be able to check on around a thousand sites a month and they’ve already been to three times that many.
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