On October 13, 2003, about 100 firms, mainly American and British, met in London to discuss investment possibilities in Iraq. These firms are invited by the US and British governments to be ready to move into Iraq as soon as security is re-established. Once again it is clear that only American and British firms will be able to invest in Iraq, at least as long as it is occupied by their military forces. Opponents are afraid that foreign firms will invest in Iraq, not to help the reconstruction of the country, but for a quick profit.
On July 3, 2004, the USA maintains that progress is going on in Iraq, though a new White House report shows that only two percent of the 18.4 billion dollars appropriated last year for Iraqi reconstruction has so far been The funds are there to train the Iraqi armed forces and police, and to help rebuild infrastructure, from the power grid to the oil sector to water and sanitation, transport and telecommunications, roads, health care and education. Some progresses can be seen: about 85 percent of Iraqi children have been immunized, some 2,500 schools have been rehabilitated and phone subscribers reached 1.2 million as of June 18. "Security problems have slowed reconstruction," the report acknowledged as "A number of firms have either withdrawn staff from Iraq or have severely limited their movement beyond secured facilities; in addition sabotage to the oil sector had delayed oil exports. Iraqi oil production has generated "revenues of over 7.5 billion dollars so far this year, which is primarily being used to finance ministry operating budgets and reconstruction activities in other sectors, including oil, electricity and security," the report noted.
The US should reimburse Iraq up to $208m for work done by a US contractor, a UN watchdog agency said on November 6, 2005. The International Advisory and Monitoring Board said the work by Halliburton had been either overpriced or insufficiently documented. In response, the energy firm denied overcharging and insisted it had co-operated with the audit.
The US has slumped well short of its goals in rebuilding Iraq, with production in the critical oil sector still languishing below pre-war levels, a government audit warned on September 28, 2006. Targets have also been missed in expanding water and electricity production and a third of Pentagon projects are still to be completed. And as violence rages on, the security situation may push reconstruction goals further out of reach. Defence Department officials were partly to blame for delays, after making assumptions about funding and timeframes that later proved to be unfounded. The report said that at times the department "did not take advantage of full and open competition during the initial stages of reconstruction". Oil production, which Bush administration officials once said would help meet vast costs of rebuilding Iraq was in August still below levels reached under Saddam Hussein.
Wrapping up more than three years of work that cost the US government $2.3 billion, Bechtel Inc. is leaving Iraq after suffering through an unanticipated spree of violence that killed 52 workers. The departure of the San Francisco-based engineering firm is another reminder of how the carnage in Iraq has scrambled the United States' once-grand ambitions to rebuild the devastated country. The US government hired Bechtel in April 2003, hoping the company behind man-made marvels like the Hoover Dam would be able to bring Iraq into the 21st century as it repaired much of the damage caused by invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein. The daunting task required rebuilding roads and bridges, expanding the power grid, cleaning up the water supply and adding more telephone lines.
The US reconstruction programme in Iraq was described on March 22, 2007, as chaotic and badly managed, according to the US special inspector general for Iraq. Stuart Bowen said tension and a lack of co-ordination between the Pentagon and the State Department led to disarray. Billions of dollars had been wasted and the overall mission in Iraq had been undermined.
Japan on Monday April 9, 2007, lent some $850 million to the government of
visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as the oil-hungry Asian power
looks to boost output from the war-torn country. The Japanese low-interest
loans will fund the construction of an oil export facility in Iraq, whose
production has tumbled since the US-led invasion.
On April 28, 2008, we were told that an audit of US-funded reconstruction projects for Iraq found millions of dollars have been wasted because many schemes have never been completed. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction blamed delays, costs, poor performance and violence for failure to finish some 855 projects. Many other projects had been falsely described as complete, found the audit of 47,321 reconstruction projects. Iraq reconstruction has cost US taxpayers more than $100bn so far.
On June 23, 2008, Jordan returned to Iraq 2,466 stolen artefacts including
jewellery, coins and sculptures that were looted from the country's national
museum after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Jordanian customs officials seized
the items from smugglers in 22 separate caches. Iraq's Tourism Minister Mohammed
Abbas al-Oraibi received the items in a ceremony yesterday at Jordan's Department
of Antiquities in the capital, Amman. Syria and Jordan combined had returned
8,500 artefacts.