358th Civil Affairs Brigade hosts
Rebuild Iraq Business Conference
2007-08-02
Blackanthem Military News, BAGHDAD, Iraq – The 358th Civil Affairs
Brigade sponsored a two-day conference full of speakers, networking,
and learning for about 300 local Iraqi businessmen at the Al-Rashid
hotel in the International Zone.
There were many objectives for this conference, said Col. Ronald
Allen, special projects officer with the brigade. One was to inform
the 300 prominent Baghdad businessmen of the proper way to bid on
upcoming U.S. Government contracts that will total $5 billion.
Another was to encourage those same attendees to hire local Iraqis.
“This conference is about employing Iraqi’s,” said Allen. “It’s not
just another job fair. It’s talking to the 300 large businesses
within central Iraq and hooking them up with our contracting command
so that they know how to compete for contracts. And we want to see
Iraqis win those contracts and hire Iraqis.”
Presentations included a speech from the Col. Victoria Diego-Allard
deputy commander of the Joint Contracting Command, who spoke about
the “Iraq First” initiative, a $5 billion program in which Iraqi
firms will be awarded contracts to rebuild Iraq, with the caveat
that they hire their fellow countrymen, making her speech before a
banner that displayed the phrase “Construction not Destruction.”
“Joint Contracting Command is committed to this program,”
Diego-Allard said in a press conference afterward. “We are reviewing
all of our contracting opportunities to increase the number of
vendors or opportunities for Iraqi vendors to do business with the
Iraqi Government.”
Diego-Allard also took the opportunity to tell Iraqis about the
contracting process, attempting to clear up misconceptions of
corruption and explaining the “firm-fix” contracting method, which
requires submitters to tell the JCC how much they would charge for a
project and incorporates performance, potential, and price into the
decision to award.
“The most prevalent problem is not understanding the bidding
process,” said Diego-Allard. “Not understanding the documentation,
not understanding that all the requested information has to be
addressed in the proposal by the contractor,” said Diego-Allard.
This is hard to grasp for some Iraqi businessmen.
“They are like the old merchant types,” said Raad Ommar, the chief
executive officer of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce, of the
old way of most Iraqi businessmen. Some companies may bid multiple
times under different names, or bid lowest no matter what the
consequences, or not have enough workers on hand to complete a job
but promise more, all of which would disqualify them from an award.
“They want to make a deal with a handshake and a phone call. Not
writing anything down as a contract. So they might tend to not even
read the contract, which was one of the things that Col. Allard
mentioned is that you need to read each line and answer each line.
Simple things that we take for granted they are not used to,” said
Ommar.
The U.S. method of asking for bids is cultural shift, Ommar said,
and it may take a while before local businessmen get accustomed.
Misunderstanding of the process has led to allegations of corruption
from the Iraqis when they do not get the contracts.
“It’s the experience and ability of the contracting office to feel
that you can really complete your project on time and then they look
at the price,” said Ommar. “So I hear from a lot of members ‘How
come? My price was better!’ or ‘How come I didn’t get a chance?’
They left out ‘are you really qualified?’”
Another aspect of the conference was to advertise the graduates of
vocational-technical institutes. Allen and the 358th CA Bde.
recently refurbished 23 technical schools with new equipment, air
conditioning, and other spruce-ups to attract students. It is
estimated that 20,000 students will graduate with a trade skill by
the end of the year. Many of these graduates will be military-aged
males.
“I just met one that hired 4500 people,” said Allen, referring to a
local business leader. “If he gets a contract he’s probably going to
hire 6000. I told him, you know if you do go up to 6000 I need you
to hire vocational grads. You don’t have time to take people on and
train them. Call the vocational school, find out when they’re
graduating.”
Allen said that a graduate of the vocational school already has the
required skill, be it sewing or baking or that in-demand skill in
the desert – air conditioning repair.
“My hope is more people look at the private sector as a way for a
professional career,” he said.
U.S. Military
358th Civil Affairs Brigade hosts business conference
By Multi-National Corps - Iraq PAO
Jul 28, 2007 - 8:51:27 PM
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