The National Approach cluster presents the second set of observations on the white paper
The National Approach cluster presents the second set of observations on the white paper
Wednesday 21 April 2021 | 01:17 PM
The head of the National Approach bloc, MP Ammar Tohme, presented today, Wednesday, the second set of notes on the white paper.
And it came in the notes: –
1. The Emergency Cell for Financial Reform recommended the existence of representation of the Economic Contact Group for Iraq (and this group includes the seven industrialized countries, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in addition to the European Union) in the Iraqi High Committee for Reform through representatives who do not have the right to vote, and I do not know what is the document of this proposal Or the constitutional or legal recommendation, and is it correct for representatives of foreign countries to participate in the membership of an Iraqi committee !? Is this consistent with the independence and sovereignty of the Iraqi economic decision? .
2. Page 41 of the second part of the White Paper included projects entitled the sale of some government assets, which is an unacceptable approach aimed at transferring state ownership in the vital, service and productive sectors to the ownership of individuals who, through their financial domination, control the will and fate of millions of Iraqis .
3. It also included on the same page within the government revenue program the sale of all surplus equipment and machinery in the public sector to the private sector and allowing them to be re-exported. Will this include the equipment of factories and laboratories !? What is the guarantee of evaluating them at their realistic prices in these circumstances controlled by financial and administrative corruption?
4. It included issuing foreign bonds as a way to collect government revenues. It is known that the bond is a guarantee document against a loan. Was the reform strategy based on borrowing and the burdensome effects it produces ?
5. On page (42) of the White Paper, Part Two, it mentions the realization of revenues through the sale of state-owned lands, as well as the sale of lands outside the road prohibitions as an exception to the public auction !!
6. The paper stipulates changing the gender of lands that do not have a water quota for the purpose of establishing industrial projects. Efforts are to be made to deliver water to those lands that are subject to agricultural activity. Other lands can be made available for the establishment of industrial projects, with attention to the capacity of the lands achieved for the second purpose .
7. The paper on page (43) includes reducing the financial support for public companies by 30% annually, meaning that the state’s funding for them will be zero, which is an absolute text that includes all companies and if they have the potential to be profitable, is the intention in session to sell all of their assets and constructions after three Years and the national industry is completely terminated .
8. It included on page (47) a method for repaying government debt by compensating those entitled to state real estate or selling the state’s right to shared property and rights to dispose of .. It is a method fraught with negligence and courtesy in evaluating those rights with the spread of administrative and financial corruption, and it is not the only or best solution to repay debts. To make it the white paper within its reform project !
9. The above article means, in some of its final applications, the sale of power stations, for example, given that some investors have debts to the state as a result of providing them with electric power only. The above article may be paid by the state to these contractors and investors by selling the state’s share to these investors. The money of some of these people, we found them commercial interfaces for influential people who seized public money in a previous period !!?
10. Page 59 of the paper included the privatization of successful companies in whole or in part .. If the public companies are completely successful then why are they privatized !? Is it not better to support, develop and finance it to increase its productivity and expand its activities? Will its infrastructure be sold at the cheapest prices !?
11. On page (64) of the second part of the White Paper, it proposes opening the door for investment in the construction, rehabilitation and management of free zones by international companies .. If the establishment by means of them is justified, then why is it granted the right to manage them, and it is possible that they can be managed by public companies with elaborate plans to develop the cadres Iraqi artistry .
12. On page (65), it refers to the industrial and investment cities plan and limits it to investment only, while an Iraqi official refers to the suspension of the Basra Industrial City project due to Resolution 347 that includes its implementation by the General Company for Industrial Design and Construction, which part of it has been accomplished in varying proportions but not providing Financial allocations to complete them required a presentation for investment, this shows the lack of seriousness in taking over public companies to activate industrial activities due to the failure to provide allocations to complete such projects .
13. On page (73) it proposes the introduction of regional and international companies specialized in the marketing and distribution of petroleum products! Why is there no expansion and development in the tasks and skills of management to distribute products to be undertaken by public companies, which is the most beneficial revenue for the Iraqi state ?
14. On page (77) of the same paper and within the alternative energy project, one of its methods is mentioned by announcing projects for the exploitation of solid waste for energy production as investment opportunities, without reference to the state’s adoption through its ministries and technical companies specialized in contributing to the implementation of such projects, as if there is a method By transferring all economic development, service and production activities to privatization and investment, and shedding the foreign or domestic private sector across all those sectors, which we warn of its economic, social and political consequences for the country .
15. The paper states on page (78) on the subject of developing the transmission and distribution of electric power, completing the electrical connection with neighboring countries .. Iraq has suffered economically from the high cost paid for supplying electrical energy from neighboring countries, and the effect of this trend on the possibility that neighboring countries can exploit it as a factor. Pressuring Iraq on foreign or internal political issues, and it is supposed to prepare a project by completing the national effort to complete projects that meet and cover the local need, rather than depending on our service and political decision to the orientations of those countries .
16. On page (79) the white paper mentions the second part, and in the projects for automating the collection of electricity wages, granting investment licenses to the collection companies, and this method was tried by the Iraqi state and proved its failure and the lack of commitment of these companies and their failure to perform their financial obligations, and with the presence of public companies, technical cadres and many workers No need to privatize this activity !
Rather, it proposes in one of the paragraphs (granting the contracting companies an opportunity to develop their work), a phrase that includes turning a blind eye to their previous negatives and reluctance .
17 . The white paper in the second part (page 83) on the subject of aviation and airports mentions a proposal for the possibility of privatizing Iraqi Airways, and this approach and approach lies in the danger of transferring the ownership of service sectors and before productivity and confining it to the hands of a few influential people to monopolize the management of the country financially, economically and politically for long decades of time. during authoritarianism on basic economic resources .
18. On page 84 of the same paper, it is proposed to study the privatization of internal and inter-governorate transportation systems, which includes the railway sector, and I do not know whether this approach is intended to transfer the state’s ownership of all its sectors to individual ownership by a few persons !? Will the reform and development is achieved and spread justice in the curriculum of the accumulation of public funds in the quiver of major contractors and traders allied with the window of political forces, Is this a prelude to link the national economic decision in the future with major international companies rhythm partnership between them and the traders influential politically and politicians influential economically !.
19. On page (85) of the paper, it proposes, on the issue of ports, the marketing of investment in the Grand Port of Faw. We hope that this will be limited to the tasks that public companies and national cadres are unable to accomplish, and not extend to the activities that the technical ministry cadres are able to accomplish, and that secondary investments will be deported. The parasite of this vital project !
20. Among the serious proposals presented by the White Paper in its second part on (page 86) regarding the telecommunications sector, it proposed to gradually privatize the public sector and the infrastructure of the telecommunications sector and grant merchants and company owners the power to own the international and domestic infrastructures for optical fibers .. This approach poses a clear danger. On information security and the overall national security, not to mention granting an important resource to maximize state revenues for the benefit of merchants and companies. Previous experiences have revealed their failure and failure to meet legal and financial obligations, and this proposal will make (75% ) of the profits of this abundant sector belong to the pockets of companies that represent interfaces for influential politicians locally or Regionally .
21. On page 89, the paper renews its proposal to open the water and wastewater sector to investors. It confirms the lines of the approach aimed at gradually converting all state sectors to privatization, despite state institutions able to implement such tasks .
22. On page (91) of the white paper, it proposes the application of a timetable for the gradual exit of the ration card system, which is also an approach that does not take into account those with limited incomes and the poor !
23. On page 96 of the second part of the White Paper on the subject of public works, it proposes to finance its projects from government revenues, loans with sovereign guarantees, and loans from international agencies! So why is building a development strategy based on loans with sovereign guarantees? Development planning is supposed to focus on maximizing government revenues to cover economic development and development programs, and not to borrowing and its cumbersome effects .
24. The white paper proposes the principle of (integrating private sector development in external financing proposals). Does external financing mean new loans for private sector development, and what are the reasons for the enthusiasm for external borrowing? Will the state assume the responsibility of the guarantor in this and with new sovereign obligations?
25. Allocating part of external grants to finance private sector projects ?? She did not detail whether this was in the way of owning them, and what is the justification for that? Or is it by way of a loan to the private sector .
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