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A technical committee at the Iraqi Electricity Ministry is studying the offers by international companies to set up power grids in seven Iraqi provinces, according to AKnews.

A Ministry spokesman, Musab al-Mudarres, told the agency that the Ministry has began studying eight offers from international companies which hope to establish power grids in Babel, Kirkuk, Nineveh, Anbar, Najaf, Wasit, and Basra provinces.

Currently Iraq owns only two power grids, the Rusafa and Karkh.

The bidding companies include among others the U.S. General Electric (GE), French Alstom and Marseille, and Malaysian Ridgestone Discovery.

The installation of facilities should take only 24 months,’ Ministry spokesman added.

(Source: AKnews)

Following his address to the Iraq Mining 2011 conference in London, the Chairman of Iraq's National Investment Commission, Dr Sami al-Araji, was interviewed by Padraig O'Hannelly for Iraq Business News:

Iraq Business News: Dr al-Araji, in your speech you mentioned the visa problems that Iraqis sometimes have entering the UK; what some businesses are also saying is that they have difficulty getting expat workers into Iraq … what is your opinion on this matter?

Dr Sami al-Araji: We have unemployment – officially about 15%, unofficially I don't know – they need to work, and it is unacceptable while we have unemployed people sitting around that we import people from the outside.

But it is fully understood, and fully understandable, that we can't source all the talent we need from engineers in Iraq. Nobody would ask you, for example, why did you bring in this or that. In the beginning [of an investment], you put forward your action program, you say I need engineers and so on, and these I will bring with me because they aren't available. We have a system with the Ministry of Social Affairs, where you say we need 10,000 workers, and 5,000 you will have to bring in for the following reasons, the other 5,000 we will get locally, [and say to the Ministry] “please get us the 5,000”.

And that's exactly what we are working on. Nobody is saying “oh, no, there can be no foreign workers, or if there are foreign workers we have to sit down and [verify] this or that”, the only authority is to the Ministry of Social Affairs, and they are very positive and cooperative and they try very much to help.

But what is happening is that some of the people have mismanaged this, and that's why there has been a problem.

IBN: Regarding foreign companies' perception of problems like corruption, and the Transparency International index on corruption, do you have any specific targets or plans to address that problem?

SA: We know there is some corruption, but I think very honestly it is magnified by the press and by the different committees around the world. We have made a lot of progress in fighting corruption and improving transparency, that is number one.

The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford and currently based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.

A recent statement by the governorate council of Wasit had an extraordinary tone: The council “rejected” the appointment of Vice Premier Hussein al-Shahristani as acting electricity minister (after Raad al-Ani “resigned” subsequent to being forced out), alleging that Shahristani had created problems for Wasit in the past through his opposition to several electricity schemes and his management of the disputed Ahdab oilfield, where a Chinese company is involved. The conflict between the local council and the oil ministry (previously headed by Shahristani) has been festering since 2009 and includes serious accusations by local politicians for example to the effect that Chinese prisoners are doing underpaid work at the oilfield.

The statement would seem like an unprecedented attempt by a provincial council to interfere in the workings of the central government. But it is very real, and reflects intense intra-Shiite disagreement ranging from the very personal to key political issues like the question of the basic structure of the Iraqi state. At the time the Wasit federalism project first emerged around June 2010, it was reportedly supported by ISCI and resisted by Sadrists and State of Law, with the rest of the council (the Shahristani bloc, the Iraqi constitutional party, Iraqiyya and independents) uncommitted. Unfortunately, the few existing recent press reports on the subject are somewhat ambiguous in that they identify a key pro-federal leader as “Mahdi Husayn al-Musawi, deputy speaker of the Wasit governorate assembly”. This seems to be a mix-up of names since the governor is Mahdi Hussein al-Zubaydi (State of Law) whereas the deputy speaker is Mahdi Ali Jabbar al-Musawi (same bloc but previously the Tanzim al-Iraq faction and with a track record of conflict with Shahristani over Ahdab in the past). In any case, these developments clearly suggest that disagreement over federalism is creating challenges for Maliki as well as for Shahristani in Wasit. It is noteworthy that also in Wasit, ISCI is apparently playing a lead role in forcing the rest of the Shiites towards a remorseless approach in the de-Baathification question, in April this year even challenging a decision by the de-Baathification commission to reinstate former Baathists in the education sector.

Iraqi's Ministry of Electricity signed a contract on Saturday with French conglomerate Alstom to build a power generation plant in Nineveh province at a cost of approximately $94 million, according to AKnews.

The Ministry said the plant will begin generating by the end of 2012.

Reuters reportst that the deal requires Iraq to pay 10 percent of the cost to Alstom in advance, and 40 percent a year after the start of construction. There were no details on when the rest of the cost would be paid.

(Sources: AKnews, Reuters)

Hussein al-Shahristani (pictured), Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, will be summoned to parliament after the Eid al-Fitr holiday to answer questions about two fraudulent ministry of electricity contracts worth more than $1.7 billion, according to AKnews.

A member of the parliamentary commission set up to investigate the case, Uday Awwad, told the agency that MPs signatures have been collected to summon Shahristani, adding that the commission is continuing to accumulate documents and files on the case.

Shahristani was assigned interim Electricity Minister last week, replacing former Minister Raad Shallal who stepped down under government pressure following the revelation of the fraud earlier this month.

The parliamentary Commission on Integrity has published documents purporting to implicate Shahristani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in approving the contracts, pointing at the same time to the signatures of other senior officials on the deal.

According to Mr Awwad, “Al-Shahristani addressed, through official letters, the Ministry of Electricity saying that he had researched the German and Canadian companies on the Internet and made sure that they were suitable."

Thye commission member questioned the depth of the Deputy Prime Minister’s research into the firms set to construct and equip power stations at a combined cost of $1.7 billion.

"How can the Iraqi government verify its contracts on the Internet?", he asked.

(Source: AKnews)

Citadel Capital reports that it has concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Petroleum Ministry of Iraq to build a 150,000-barrel-of-oil-per-day (BOPD) complex petroleum refinery in Iraq.

Under the terms of the MOU, the Ministry of Petroleum would guarantee the refinery its feedstock and purchase the refined products under a 25-year off-take agreement at international prices.

The MOU gives Citadel Capital three years to complete all project studies, including technical, environmental and financial, among others; and allows Citadel Capital to build fuel stations and electricity generation plants. The new 150 million square meter refinery will take up to four years to construct and would enjoy tax breaks as accorded by relevant Iraqi laws.

Iraq Business News understands that the deal relates to the new facility in Mosul announced last week by the the Egyptian Qalaa company.

The Iraqi Electricity Ministry announced on Monday that eight small diesel-powered electricity generators have been completed and are ready to start producing a total of 240 MW of power.

Ministry spokesman Musab al-Mudarres told AKnews that the stations are First Northern Baghdad, Jadiriya, First Qurna, Second Qurna, al-Farabi, Falluja, Ramadi, and Balad. Each of them will generate 30 MW.

"The project of establishing other stations at Kadhimiya, Dawra, Second Northern Baghdad, and Second Jadiriya will be completed at the middle of next September and will add [another] 120 MW to the grid."

(Source: AKnews)

Baghdad provincial council announced on Thursday that it has allocated 50 billion Iraqi dinars ($40 million) from its budget to purchase 360 electricity generators to be distributed throughout the capital in order to reduce the acute shortage of energy, noting that these generators, with the help of civil generators, will provide 2200 MW for the capital.

AKnews reports that the provincial council began the distribution of 44 generators, with sizes from 50 to 500 KW, in various areas including Abu Ghoreib, Taji and Tarmiyah in the neighborhoods of Baghdad beside Karkh and Rusafa.

"The initial plan includes the distribution of 360 generators. Larger generators will be distributed to hospitals, water and sewer projects."

The Iraqi government announced last May that it will allocate $400 million to provide the owners of civil and government generators with free oil in order that they can commit themselves to run 12 hours a day, confirming that oil will be paid for by the Ministry of Finance or deducted from the imports of the oil ministry at the end of this year.

(Source: AKnews)

The electricity, trade, defense and interior ministries have been identified as the most corrupt of the country's ministries, the Integrity Committee in parliament.

Iraq's Integrity Commission has announced that it has opened an investigation into corruption in the Iraqi Defense Ministry

AKnews reports that the investigation relates to all of the department's dealings since 2003, especially relating to the purchase of arms.

Committee member Aziz al-Ukaili told the news agency that the Commission is unable to follow up all of the cases of corruption in all ministries, since the ministries include “persons that can be hardly detected."

The 2010 corruption index published by Transparency International put Iraq third from bottom in the perception of corruption.

Earlier this year, Iraqi authorities arrested a high-ranking police official in connection with the purchase of "ADE651" bomb detection devices, purchased from a British-based company, which were described as practically useless.

(Source: AKnews)

The Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs, Hussein al-Shahristani, has been nominated to the post of Acting Minister of Electricity, along with his current post, the semi-official Iraqiya TV Satellite Station reported on Wednesday.

“Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has assigned his Deputy for Energy Afffairs, Hussein al-Shahristani, to hold the administration of the Minister of Electricity on an acting basis,” the TV Station said, according to Aswat al-Iraq.

Prime Minister Maliki had sacked his Electricity Minister, Raad Shallal, on August 17, following the exposure of questionable contracts for electricity generation, valued at $1.7 billion.

(Source: Aswat al-Iraq)