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My discussion of corruption case with Mr.
Nechirvan Barzani
21.1.2012
By Rizgar Khoshnaw, Washington DC - ekurd.net |
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Rizgary Hospital, a $68 million project,
February 2011. Photo: Rizgar Khoshnaw/ekurd.net
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January
21, 2012
I know I have been extremely critical, vocal and
disappointed beyond belief at Kurdistan Regional
Government KRG and many members
of the Kurdish government, but as far as Mr.
Nechirvan Barzani is concerned, I hold the very
highest regards and respect for him. He is
unbelievably dedicated, intelligent, hard working
and respectable statesman.
We met the first time 14 years ago (about 30 or so
more meetings with him in past 14 years) and he has
shown me a great deal of respect. It is truly sad
that he is surrounded by so many corrupted,
incompetent and selfish people that are making him
look bad.
I say that because of one particular project that
was implemented three years ago in Kurdistan that
was valued at $68 million and I spoke with him about
it. This project was financed/funded by a Japanese
agency, JICA, that called for the "rehabilitation"
of hospitals in Erbil, Kirkuk, Duhok and
Sulaimaniyah.
When I contacted Mr. Barzani about this case, and
after I investigated this project for more than a
year, he told me to report my findings to Baghdad. I
had a strong feeling that he did not want to know
and deal with this issue since he knows he has so
many corrupt people around him and he is limited to
who he can terminate/punish since there are so many
of them!
This is the e-mail that I
received from Mr. Barzani's office on Feb. 20, 2011:
Dear Kak Rizgar,
Good morning,
I hope this message finds you well. I am Tawfiq from
Minister Falah's office and he asked me to write to
you. Minister Falah sends his best regards. We have
forwarded your letter to H.E. Nechirvan Barzani. H.E.
Nechirvan Barzani commend your works for the Kurdish
nation. H.E. suggested that this issue should be
addressed through the Iraqi Commission of Integrity.
Warm wishes and best regards,
Tawfiq ........
Sincerely,
Tawfiq .............
Kurdistan Regional Government-Iraq
Department of Foreign Relations
Mobile #: 00964-750-xxx-xxxx
Office #: 00964-750-xxx-xxxx
http://www.krg.org
On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at
8:32 PM, Falah Bakir <yxyxyxy@krg.org> wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: R.....@aol.com
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:05:26 EST
Subject: Re: Mr. N. Barzani
To: xyxyxyx@krg.org
Here is more details about this project:
I began to look into this project because there was
no way in hell that this could be true. I have
visited the hospital in Erbil, Rizgary hospital, and
seen that there has been absolutely no improvements
from the very first day that I visited Kurdistan in
the summer of 1997.
Because I have visited and lived in Kurdistan for
the past 14 years, and I have worked on hospital
projects as well, I knew the followings:
1- Kirkuk did not have a "real" hospital
2- Sulaimaniyah did not have a hospital. I myself
was working on building one few years ago.
3- Duhok did not have a "real" hospital, only small
clinics
And finally, Erbil does indeed have one, Rizgary
hospital, and that is when I began to look and
concentrate on this project.
I began to interview many people (on two different
trips to Kurdistan on November 2010 and February of
2011) at the Rizgary Hospital and the employees told
me that it was true that a Japanese agency did come
one time. They came and asked few questions and at
that point, this Japanese agency placed the
responsibility on a local Iraqi Kurdish businessman
to implement this project.
I asked some of the hospital
administrators/employees what was done at this
hospital and they told me the followings:
1- They had only ONE elevator repaired that no
longer functions
2- They provided the hospital with few small medical
machines (it did not include MRI or CT scan or X-ray
machines)
3- They had electric wiring repaired to the inside
of the hospital
This is ALL that was done
for the $68 Million!!
When I asked how much could all of this work would
cost, I was told no more that $100,000. With this
article, I have included the picture of Rizgary
Hospital that I took on February 2011 and we can
clearly see there has been NO addition or
reconstruction on it.
So, where did all the rest, which is $67.9 Million
go to?? Anyone that heartless that can steal money
from a desperately needed hospital project does not
deserve to live and enjoy this money.
For $68 million, my company could have built a fully
furnished brand new modern 200 bed hospital with up
to date medical equipments in Kurdistan!
I decided to contact this Japanese agency in
Washington,DC and ask few questions and to
investigate this project. I had emailed ( between
December 4th to April 8th 2011) the following
gentlemen at the DC office: Mr. Kudo, Mr. Adachi,
Mr. Hideharv, Mr. Keiichre and Mr. Nemotaki. I have
more than a dozens e-mails going back and forth with
them trying to get to the bottom of this case. I
must admit that they were very helpful, professional
and respectful toward me.
As we speak, there is another hospital project in
Duhuk that this Japanese agency, JICA, has financed
and the value is $165 million that was supposed to
be complete five month go. I strongly suggest anyone
living in Kurdistan to and check this new built
hospital in Dohuk.
This is the $68 million contract information from
JICA web site:
JICA Assistance for Iraq
Emergency Grant Aid (expediting implementation)
JICA has been undertaking cooperation in order to
expedite the implementation of the Emergency grant
aid projects to Iraq since 2004.
Health / Medical care
• Rehabilitation of and provision of equipment to 4
general hospitals in the South (Nasiriyah, Najaf,
Diwaniyah, and Samawah) (around $51million)
• Rehabilitation of and provision of equipment to 4
general hospitals in the North (Kirkuk, Arbil, Mosul,
Dahuk) (around $68 million)
• Rehabilitation of and provision of equipment to 3
general hospitals in the Central Region (Baghdad,
Amarah and Kut) (around $46 million)
During my e-mails with the gentlemen I mentioned
above at JICA for a period of four months, I knew
that this Japanese agency was NOT at fault or the
corrupt one but rather, it is the Iraqi Kurdish side
that was not honest! I have never in my life
heard/read of any Japanese company or agency being
corrupt. It is not in their blood!!
As of the Iraqi politicians (majority) corruption is
the only thing that runs in their blood!
Rizgar Khoshnaw, Washington, DC, he has lived in
the US for the past 35 years. He attended North
Carolina State University for a period of six years
and obtained the degrees in Economics, business
management and two years of Pre-Medical. He began to travel to Kurdistan fourteen years ago after being
absent from Kurdistan for more than 23 years. from
the first visit in 1997 to 2001, He traveled to
Kurdistan 25 times to investigate the oil-for-food
program and wrote a book (and had over 50 articles
published) about the dishonest program. In the past
eight years, he has been representing an American
based company trying to implement certain projects.
Read more at my newly created
Facebook page
(Iraqi Kurdish issue, Rizgar Xoshnaw)
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