Book Recommendation

People Factor: Strengthening America by Investing in Public Service
by Linda Bilmes , W. Scott Gould

Iraq IFMIS to be operational in 2009

We are making progress in modernizing public financial management (PFM). The Board of Supreme Audit (BSA) has completed the audit of the final accounts of the federal budget for 2005 and the audit of the final accounts for 2006 is underway. We have submitted the final accounts of the federal budget for 2007 to the BSA in October. The audit reports will be submitted to the Council of Representatives and published. We have also adopted, in consultation with the Fund and the World Bank, a three-year action plan that identifies priority measures to modernize PFM, notably as regards budget preparation, execution and reporting; cash management; public procurement; cash management; and the accounting framework. We will step up our efforts to put in place, in cooperation with USAID, the renewed Iraq Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), in order to make this system fully operational in 2009.

14. We have completed about 25 percent of the data collection for the census of public service employees at end-October, but finalization of the project is being delayed due to technical problems. We will make all efforts to have the census completed by end-January 2009. After completion of the census we will move swiftly to eliminate ghost workers and adopt an action plan to computerize the payroll, as a first step for a comprehensive civil service reform. In parallel, the BSA has begun a project to verify the personnel records in line ministries, in order to clean up the existing payroll.

-Iraq: Letter of Intent and Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies

Related;

Integrated Financial Management Information Systems: A Practical Guide

An Arab good bye kiss

Shoe-Hurling Iraqi Becomes a Folk Hero

Deception, waste and poor planning

Anti-Corruption Efforts Abandoned

Anti-corruption efforts were abandoned by both American and Iraqi officials, opening the door to waste, fraud and abuse.
“Grafted on to the existing Iraqi legal system and inadequately supported by their U.S. creators, the CPI [Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity" and the IGs [Iraqi Ministry Inspector Generals] have struggled to find their footing in the new Iraq. Anticorruption efforts by the CPA and the U.S. Embassy must be seen in this context, but the absence of progress in fighting corruption in Iraq is disappointing.

One (Iraqi Inspector General) noted: "If we're too active, our minister will fire us," and the chilling, "if I do my job, they'll kill me."

4.8 miles of Electric Beds

Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience

Official History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders

The Organizational Chart for Iraq's Reconstruction


Parking Lot as Situation Room
As a socialist regime, Iraq had millions of state employees and pensioners. Rebuilding officials had no idea how much to pay them. They picked a figure out of the air over a debate in a parking lot, according to the review.

“The decision about emergency payments to Iraqi civil servants took place around a concrete pillar in the parking lot of the Kuwait Hilton. "Having read various background papers, we started talking about if we could do it at five bucks, or we could do it at 50 bucks," David Nummy remembers. "We decided that a good midpoint was 20 bucks. And that's how we established $20 emergency payments."

4.8 miles of Electric Beds
The violence greatly impeded execution, leading to confusion and unfinished projects.

“When finally finished, the waste-water treatment system—which was supposed to serve the entire population of Falluja—will serve just over a third of the city's population, will have cost three times its original price, and will have been completed three years later than originally planned. Moreover, serious questions remain about whether the Iraqis can sustain it after transfer to their control.

It turned out that the U.S. imported a lot of (hospital) beds for Iraq. A representative of the Canadian company that produced them all told (Jack) Holly, (the former logistics chief for the reconstruction effort) that he had received "4.8 miles of electric hospital beds." Over time, the embassy distributed them to various hospitals and clinics—to be operated manually in many cases because of the inadequate power supply.