USAID: Press Briefing by Administrator Natsios on Aid to Iraq, 04/21/03

Press Briefing by Andrew S. Natsios, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development Humanitarian Aid For Iraq Foreign Press Center Washington, DC April 21, 2003 (NOTE: Briefing was fed in progress.) QUESTION: (In progress) -- people from sending teams as long as that may damage the message and the mission? MR. NATSIOS: I was not aware that Franklin Graham was sending teams in. We have not given him any funding. There are 55 international NGOs in Jordan now, poised to go in. I don't know the names of all of them. We've given grants to about six very large, well-known international NGOs like CARE, and Save the Children, and the International Rescue Committee, the International Medical Corps -- those kinds of groups. We cannot control who goes into a country anywhere. We don't have that kind of authority to do that. Yes? QUESTION: (Name inaudible) -- from Al-Hayat Newspaper. How are you going to deal -- the USAID, you're going to deal with and cooperate legitimately with the rebuilding issue? And what will be the role of the Iraqis? And also, General Garner said he's not recognizing now Mr. Zubaidi, who announced himself a governor. So who is he going to deal with -- you are going to deal with this matter? MR. NATSIOS: Well, first, having someone come in from the outside and announce that he's the mayor of Baghdad is a little bit extreme. I mean, who elected him to be the mayor of Baghdad? The way in which we operate in AID, everywhere in the world -- we work in 79 countries, and we have found over the years the best way to get support for what you're doing and to make sure what you're doing is consistent with the cultural traditions and the religious traditions and the history of the country is to talk to people at the village level, at the neighborhood level, not high-level political figures. That's for other people; that's for diplomats and the military. But AID, for our work, we go to the village level, and we will first see the religious leaders in the community, we will find doctors, who typically are -- there are politicized doctors, but most doctors are interested in caring for people. And so we'll find the doctors, we find lawyers, we find university professors, many of whom are a little bit more insulted from the old regime. For example, in Umm Qasr, the villagers came back and told us they didn't want the Ba'athist officials coming back, and we said that's fine, but you need to organize in the neighborhoods. And people chose from each of the neighborhoods -- I think there were 40 or 50 neighborhoods in the city -- a representative for the council. And a professor of English, who taught at Al Basra University, spoke very good English, was chosen by this group to sort of be the spokesperson. He's not the mayor of the city, but he sort of speaks for the council. Before we do anything in the city, we ask the villagers, through these local groups, that are temporary in nature until formal elections can be held, what their priorities are; what do they want done first, what do they want done second. And everybody's first point is water. That is the great need. And water is connected to electricity. So we recognize putting the electrical grid back online across Iraq is a top priority because it directly affects the -- it affects crime, too, because if you have light at night, it's harder for people to loot. People like to loot anywhere in the world in darkness. And if there's light, it's harder for them to do that. But it's very important to run the pumps and the water plants. And we do know, for example, that one of the reasons the quality of the water is deteriorating is when the water pressure is very low in the water pipes, it creates what's called reverse pressure. And what happens is all of the dirty water in the soil is sucked into the water pipes that aren't full with water, and so getting the water pressure up to maximum level is very important to protect the quality of the water. There's a direct relationship between the quality of the water and water pressure. This is a technical engineering question, but you can see why there's a relationship between getting the electrical plants working. So that's the first priority, is the electrical plants, because water affects people's ability to survive. Children get sick if the water's dirty; they're particularly sick because they're more vulnerable. The death rate among children is very high, and much too high. And particularly in the south, there's been no effort by the Ba'athist Party to repair any -- over a 15-year period -- any of the water plants. And that's why the death rates in the south appear from the initial review to be much higher than they are in the central part of the country. And so, that's a priority. But the other thing that people asked us is a very simple thing. In Umm Qasr, for example, is they asked us to repair a municipal building. And they said: We don't want to go to the Ba'athist Party headquarters to meet, even though the building's okay; there's nothing -- no damage to it. And they said: The reason we don't is that's where our relatives were taken to be tortured and executed, and none of us want to go in that building, because it's so horrible a place for us, because we would hear people screaming at night during the torture sessions by the Ba'athist Party over the years. We will not step foot in there. And we said: We respect that. What do you -- where do you want to meet? And so they chose a municipal building that no bad history or memory to it, and we needed to repair that, and we're beginning to do that this week for them. So, we'll do that in each village as we go along. And they will set the priorities, and then we will respond to the priorities. It's the Iraqi's country, it's not our country. So they need to make the decisions as to what the priorities are. MODERATOR: One right back there. QUESTION: Thank you. (Name inaudible) -- Al-Ahram, Egypt. May I ask you about the contracts for rebuilding Iraq? So far, you are giving the contracts to the American companies, which is understandable. How about the Arab countries which are really legitimate, the sisters and brothers of Iraq? They have been working with Iraq; big companies in Egypt built a lot of -- (inaudible) -- Baghdad. So, what is the trend now? How are you going to approach them? And is it only through you that any contracts can be done? Or can anyone go and -- a big builder and go and do what he wants? MR. NATSIOS: Well, there is some misunderstanding in terms of the $2-1/2 billion. Some people think that's Iraqi oil money. None of that is Iraqi oil money or Iraqi frozen assets. All of that U.S. taxpayer money. So it's our contribution from our own tax resources, from the U.S. Treasury, for the rebuilding of Iraq. We expect many other countries to also contribute. Japan has indicated they're going to contribute. The British have already made a very large pledge. The German development minister was in to see me last week. The Danish minister, the Norwegian minister -- we expect the Saudis will make a contribution, in the Gulf states. We're hoping that Egypt and Turkey will make contributions as well. So that many -- the only source of revenue is not the U.S. government. That's the first thing I wanted to say. But the money that we are spending is U.S. government money, U.S. taxpayers' money. Second, in terms of local firms, local companies, such as ones from Egypt or Turkey or Jordan or Saudi Arabia, or Europe, countries in Europe, we expect that many of the subcontracts from the prime contractor -- the prime contractor is the one who keeps the records and the books and the accounting system, consistent with USAID and U.S. government standards and federal law. The subcontractors don't have to worry about that. All they have to do is do what the prime contractor tells them to. And right now, I am told, the prime contractors are already looking for local companies, Iraqi companies and companies from the region, to work in Iraq, who know the country, know the infrastructure, may have built some of the hospitals. We understand, for example, 10 of the hospitals that were built in Baghdad were built by the Japanese. Well, they have an expertise there. It may be Japanese money that rebuilds those hospitals, if they need to be rehabilitated. So the subcontracting will be done, in many cases, competitively. So there will be a competitive bid for subcontract, let's say, to do -- let's say, for example, to do 50 schools in Basra. And they will bid it out, and it will be public -- published. There's procedure for doing this in law, and we will follow those procedures. And we've waived or we've put aside the rule, because the law is that even subcontractors have to be Americana companies. We have rescinded that law just for Iraq in January, and so the law is no longer applicable for subcontractors. Subcontractors can come from any country, except about six countries that are in the terrorist list. Libya -- companies from Libya will not be able to bid -- or North Korea, for example -- on that. (Cross talk.) Korea. Korea. QUESTION: North Korea. MR. NATSIOS: North Korea. QUESTION: Korea? Sudan? QUESTION: Cuba? MR. NATSIOS: Sudan -- I don't know if Sudan is in the -- QUESTION: Sir, just to follow up on -- MODERATOR: Identify yourself, please. QUESTION: Sure. My name is Khalid Daoud (sp). I also work for the same paper as Ms. Hoda (sp), Egypt's Al Ahram. MR. NATSIOS: Yes. You have a lot of reporters -- QUESTION: Yeah, the two of us. MR. NATSIOS: Yes. QUESTION: You know, sir, you mentioned that this is U.S. taxpayers' money, but we also know that you've frozen the assets -- Iraqi assets here worth 1.7 billion, and you're also seeking to lift the sanctions against Iraq, you know, and basically -- MR. NATSIOS: Right. QUESTION: -- which is going to put you in control of the oil-for-food program. MR. NATSIOS: No, no, no. It won't put us in control. QUESTION: Well, one way or the other, being there, you know, you are the only party who's going to be responsible for -- MR. NATSIOS: Well, but the $13 billion are U.N. -- in U.N. trust fund accounts. They're not in our accounts. So we can't control it. QUESTION: Well, I mean, I'm just questioning this business of using U.S. taxpayers' money, considering the future, you know, money that you're going to get -- (inaudible). MR. NATSIOS: Yeah. I understand that. The U.N. -- the funds that are frozen are frozen in the Treasury Department. They're in a separate account. They're not in the U.S. Treasury. The money -- the $2-1/2 billion to be used for Iraq reconstruction -- for my budget, okay, for the AID money -- is from U.S. taxpayer funds, not from oil-for-food and not from frozen assets. The oil-for-food revenues are in a U.N. trust fund; I think there are two or three of them. And they're controlled by the United Nations and the only way to access this money is through a Security Council resolution, because the U.N. controls the funds. MODERATOR: Yeah, way back here. QUESTION: I'm Ed Nicky (sp) with InterPress Service. Just to follow up again on the previous two questions, as far as I know sir, do you know if any Israeli companies have actually applied for the subcontracts? And which -- MR. NATSIOS: I have no idea. QUESTION: Right. And how -- MR. NATSIOS: Because, you see, we've just chosen the prime contractors, so it would be a little early for them to bid. QUESTION: Right. But one of the reasons you mentioned before in your past -- last briefing here -- why the contracts were -- (word inaudible) -- to U.S. companies, is that -- you cited security reasons. MR. NATSIOS: Right. QUESTION: Will the security reasons still apply for the subcontracts, in which case -- MR. NATSIOS: No. You don't have to have -- you do not have to have a security clearance to bid on a subcontract, number one. Number two, much of the information that was classified in January has been declassified. It was classified in January because the president had not made a decision as to what was going to happen. So, it was very sensitive information. And when we asked them to prepare their bids, their bids to our advertised RFP, a lot of this information was classified. For example, the actual plan for reconstructing Iraq, which is now public information -- it's on the website, it's a public document, anybody can read it -- that was classified in January, it's been declassified once the war started. So, subcontractors do not have to have security clearance. MODERATOR: Yes? QUESTION: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: No, no. The federal law says that we're not actually allowed to tell prime contractors, except consistent with federal law. So if a country -- subcontractor comes from a terrorist -- one of those six countries, then the law is fairly clear. But otherwise, it's supposed to be based on the highest quality product for the lowest price. That's the standard we use. So, people are going to have to bid. I mean, just because a country supported us in the coalition does not mean they're automatically going to get any contracts. QUESTION: My name is Ben Bangara (ph). I would like to follow up on the previous questions on the money issue, $2 billion. MR. NATSIOS: Yes; 2-1/2 billion. QUESTION: Two and a half billion. Why would you spend the U.S. taxpayers money for Iraqi people? Is this a form of lend the money to be reimbursed in the future -- MR. NATSIOS: No. Not at all. QUESTION: -- or is some form of give it away? MR. NATSIOS: It's a gift. QUESTION: If so, why would you do so while there are still some people left over in the United States who need money and who basically need the funds? MR. NATSIOS: Are you making the argument against us doing that? (Laughter.) But no, I understand. There are people who might say that. But I think the great bulk of the American people know that if a war takes place to remove a reprehensible regime, a brutal regime, and you don't show some hope for the future after the war is over, you could have a return to the regime later on. The Iraqi people have to see, in the next year or two, an improvement in their standard of living. We don't think that that's going to be that difficult to do, actually, because the infrastructure is already there. The pipes are already in the ground. The water treatment plants have already been built. It's that they have not been repaired in 15 years or 20 years, because all the money's been going for military purposes or to build those palaces that Saddam had. So, if we can spend the money we have carefully to rehabilitate -- the 6,000 schools will be rehabilitated, that's one of our goals; 100 hospitals, the main hospitals in the country, will be rehabilitated. It's not that we have to build them from scratch, we have to reconstruct or rehabilitate what has not been properly maintained for 15 years now. A lot of the equipment, for example, in this water treatment plants, there's no repair parts for them. I understand there's actually a warehouse that's been full of repair parts for three years now; they have not used any of the equipment. We're told that they did not want the water to improve in certain areas of the country because they wanted the child mortality rates to be high, which is very -- it's a disgusting thing to take out their political hatred of certain parts of Iraqi society on the children. But that's our first priority, is to protect children's lives. And 100,000 Iraqi children died last year needlessly. The child mortality rate in Iraq is higher than India's. It's just completely outrageous that this has been allowed to exist this long. MODERATOR: Let's go here. QUESTION: (Name inaudible) -- from TRT, Turkish Public Television. Just correct me if I'm wrong. It will be up to the prime contractors to pick up the subcontractors. MR. NATSIOS: That's correct. Within certain federal law. I mean, it has to comply with federal law. QUESTION: So, it's not up to the other neighbor countries who are willing to help -- MR. NATSIOS: If they're willing to help, they'll use their own contractors with their own money. This is just for the U.S. government contribution. We're not the only ones reconstructing Iraq. We're hoping Turkey will contribute, or Saudi Arabia, or the Gulf states, or Egypt or European countries. As I mentioned earlier, many of them have already made pledges toward reconstruction. We have $1.3 billion in pledges already, just on the humanitarian relief side, from other countries. QUESTION: Are anything left for the other countries to help? I mean, you decided to reconstruct Iraq, building up schools and everything. Do you have any other options for other countries? MR. NATSIOS: Oh, of course! Because there are more than 6,000 schools; 6,000 are the schools in the worst condition. But there are many other schools that need to be rebuilt. The universities need to be rebuilt. The amount of money we have is not going to clean up all the sewer systems. Most of the sewer treatment plants don't work, and they pump all that untreated sewage into the Tigris and Euphrates River, and that's where people get their drinking water. So, many other countries will have to also contribute. QUESTION: (Off mike.) I don't get the picture. Can we have what the U.S. will be doing as of reconstructing business? MR. NATSIOS: Yes, we can give that to you. QUESTION: Thank you. MR. NATSIOS: Anybody want to read our website -- every day it changes. (To staff.) Do you have the sit reps, the humanitarian -- right there, I think, you have it. No? STAFF: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: There's our website -- sit reps, do you have them in the book there? STAFF: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: Maybe not. STAFF: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: No, that's not it. And it changes every day. And at the back of it, it has the list of all of the countries that have contributed money toward the effort. It lists that. And then it says specifically which organizations we've given the U.S. money to. Remember I had mentioned almost $600 -- $600 million? Every day that changes, it updates it. So you can get a lot of information just off the existing AID website. And all the contracts that we've let out -- the actual texts of the contracts are on the website. They're public information. You can read them. QUESTION: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: Monies from other countries do not come to the United States. STAFF (?): Yeah, they decide. MR. NATSIOS: They decide how they spend their money. QUESTION: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: No, no. No, no. QUESTION: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: No, that doesn't make any difference, doesn't make any difference. QUESTION: (Off mike.) QUESTION: You have to -- (off mike) -- MR. NATSIOS: Oh, they talk to -- no, no, no. They go to the U.N. OCHA, the U.N. humanitarian aid agency -- I mean the U.N. coordination agency in Larnaca. They will be the coordinating unit for U.N. agencies. See, there's been a lot of debate in the newspapers. I don't know where it all comes from. But U.N. OCHA has been in existence for many years. We're a major donor to them. And they are coordinating the humanitarian relief response for all countries in the world and all U.N. agencies and all NGOs. Now when I say "coordinate," they don't order people what to do. But they will put down, you know, "The British are doing this water system in this city, so the United States doesn't need to do it," or the Saudi government is -- or the Kuwaiti government -- the Kuwaiti government is doing a lot of work in the southern part of the country right now. That is all put up on the ReliefWeb by the U.N agency, and that's how we coordinate this. MODERATOR: Let's go over here. QUESTION: Manahmed (sp), L'Arabia (sp). Do you expect Iraq as a country to pay a portion of this reconstructions effort? MR. NATSIOS: The two and a half billion, no, no. QUESTION: In the future, I mean. And the second question is, how do you think the U.N. sanction affecting your humanitarian effort in Iraq? MR. NATSIOS: Well, the humanitarian effort in Iraq is not affected by the U.N. sanctions, because they are exempt from it. And they are -- if you read the text of the U.N. sanctions, they exempt humanitarian relief efforts from the provisions of the rule of the sanctions. What was the other question? QUESTION: The Iraqis -- MR. NATSIOS: Oh, the Iraqis. The Iraqis have -- will have income of between $18 (billion) and $20 billion a year in oil revenues. This is not immediately, but in the future years. When there is new, democratically elected Iraqi government, they're going to spend that oil, I hope transparently, for the good of the public, for reconstruction of the country over the longer term. The $2-1/2 billion is not going to reconstruct the whole country, because a lot of work needs to get done. This is for the next year or two until -- it's sort of a bridge between now and the time that an Iraqi government can take authority legitimately from the Iraqi people's vote. QUESTION: (Inaudible.) MR. NATSIOS: The amount of -- the money we're spending now is not using Iraqi money. If the oil-for-food program is extended beyond the 45 days, then U.N. agencies will be able to use some of that money, but so far there has been no agreement to go past the 45 days. And the oil-for-food program that is currently been extended for 45 days is only for old contracts that have been approved before the war started. That's the Security Council resolution that exists now. MODERATOR: Over here. QUESTION: (Inaudible.) MODERATOR: Hold on -- it's your colleague's turn, in front, here. QUESTION: Bashir (sp), from Sudan. I see that there are some similarities and dissimilarities between Operation Lifeline Sudan, especially in the aspect of the United Nations being an umbrella over everybody. Can you compare the two, this is one thing. But the other question is, now Sudan (is) going through a very critical period. Do you think this might get your attention and efforts away from that? Thank you. MR. NATSIOS: No, it will not take our efforts away from it. I remain an Africanist, and as soon as things have stabilized in Iraq I'm going to go back to work in Africa -- not just Sudan, but other countries in Africa as well. We've announced a large reconstruction program in the south for 250 schools in southern Sudan and beginning agricultural development. And if there is a peace settlement between the north and the south at the talks in Kenya, there will be a much larger reconstruction program that the United States government will pledge its support for, out of U.S. taxpayers' money, for the reconstruction of all of Sudan. But there has to be a peace settlement to do that. So, part of what happens in Sudan is in Sudanese hands right now. If you sign the peace agreement, then we will help with reconstruction country-wide. QUESTION: But it's using the umbrella model? MR. NATSIOS: The umbrella model is always used; we use this everywhere. I don't know why there's a big debate about this. The U.N. -- it's the -- OLS is a little bit more robust than we use in most countries, and it's also existed since 1989 -- it started in 1989. OLS -- we hope that we won't need the U.N. to do this in Iraq for 13 years. We hope this'll last a couple of years, and then the Iraqi people will be in charge of their own destiny. They won't need the United Nations and they won't need us. But, we'll see; we'll see how long it takes. MODERATOR: Second row, here. QUESTION: Nashta Farid (sp) from Radio Farda (ph). Could you, sir, tell us the role of the neighboring countries in the reconstruction efforts? What kind of help are you receiving from the neighboring countries? Or, could you tell us what are the major obstacles from the neighboring countries? MR. NATSIOS: Well, I know that relief shipments now have come through Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan this weekend, and Turkey. So, four of the neighboring countries have been very helpful in facilitating the movement of food, medical supplies and equipment that are needed for reconstruction. The Kuwait government and the Kuwait Red Crescent Society have been particularly generous in providing relief supplies to Basra, and to Nasiriyah and to Umm Qasr. In addition, the Kuwaiti government has also allowed us to build a pipeline through, I think, UNICEF, with the Royal Engineers of the British military from a desalinization plant, water treatment plant in Kuwait City, all the way up to Umm Qasr, and then water's being trucked from Umm Qasr into al-Basra. That is a gift, a gift once again, of the water itself. The pipeline is built with international support, including money from the United States. But the water itself is being desalinated in a Kuwaiti plant at their expense. So, countries have helped in the neighborhood. QUESTION: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: Not right now. I think we're doing pretty well. A U.S. ship is about to dock in Aqaba, a food ship, for shipment through Jordan into western Iraq. MODERATOR: Again, third row here. QUESTION: Thank you very much. Many Iraqis still -- despite your efforts on humanitarian grounds, many Iraqis see you as occupying power. Is there any way to alleviate the fiasco of the other country, in Somalia? Do you think you would be able to alleviate that fiasco, turning the population against your efforts there, a daily, specific plan? MR. NATSIOS: Well, there are two specific plans. One is the reconstruction plan. If the Iraqi people see that the presence of the United States means an improvement in their standard of living and an improvement in public services and an improvement in their individual freedom, they will want us to remain for a while, until there is an elected government. What they ask for the most now is security, and security is still a problem in some areas, in Baghdad, for example. And if the Americans withdraw, who will provide the security if there's no government? So that's important. But I just want to say one thing. The Shi'a have not been able to worship in their very important religious festival this past week until now. For 30 years, they've been suppressed from having that great celebration. It's a very ancient ceremony that goes back to the early days of Islam. And they've been able to do that. They did it very peacefully, I might add. People were predicting a lot of violence that did not take place, okay? And the fact that they were able to do that is sign of celebration in many of the Shi'a communities and the Shi'a mosques. So, I think if you talk to the average Iraqi in the streets, and this is not for the TV cameras. The people that go to the TV cameras sometimes are old Ba'athist Party people who have taken their uniforms off, and they're saying, "Oh, we want the Americans to leave!" Of course they want us to leave. The average people in the villages say, "No, no, no, no. We like things safe. Stay around for a little while here." QUESTION: Thank you. Again, I'm Said Arikat from Al Quds. Sir, there were 2 million members of the Ba'ath Party. And there was an article today in the Guardian saying that more and more, these people are assuming some responsibilities, policing Baghdad, maybe having to go and work in the power stations and so on. Do you find yourself obligated to rely more and more on former Ba'athist bureaucracy? And second, sir, what is your comment on the first newspaper to be published, Barik Asha (sp), which is the Communist Party newspaper? Thank you. MR. NATSIOS: Well, it shows a sign of freedom if the Communist Party is publishing a newspaper in Iraq. Saddam brutally suppressed the Communists, of course, along with any other competing group. And so it's -- I haven't read the paper. I'm not sure I would agree with it, but they have the right to publish what they wish to. It's a free country, in terms of people's civil liberties. Your first question is -- QUESTION: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: Oh. Yeah. That's a legitimate -- very good question. We want to make a distinction between those members of the Ba'athist Party who are talented technocrats -- let's say a medical doctor. You couldn't be a director of a hospital, if you were a medical doctor, unless you were a member of the Ba'athist Party. You couldn't be the principal of a school. Now I refuse to believe -- and Americans don't have any evidence -- that just because you're a member of the Ba'athist Party and you were principal of a school, that you've committed war crimes and atrocities. So we're making a distinction between those people who have committed atrocities against their own people over a sustained period of time, by torturing people, by executing them, by sending them to the prisons, where they never come out of, and those people who are technocrats, who are simply good technical people, and they ran a -- let's say -- we understand many of the engineers who run the electrical utilities -- the plants that produce electricity -- I don't know what kind of crimes they've committed just by making the generators run. So one of the major jobs right now in civil administration for the U.S. is to distinguish between the people who have committed war crimes against their own people versus competent technocrats who, because they wanted to get ahead, had to join the Ba'athist Party, but who have committed no crimes. MODERATOR: (Inaudible.) MR. NATSIOS: And by the way, people who know who they are. In Umm Qasr, they told us, "These people were the people who killed our relatives. Arrest them when they come back. These other people ran one of the power plants or one of the water pumping stations. They're okay. They never caused trouble, and they didn't do any bad things." They actually -- the villagers can tell you who is in which category. QUESTION: My name is -- (inaudible). I'm with Turkey's Anatolia News Agency. What kind of contribution do you expect from Turkey in terms of reconstruction? Could you give us more details? MR. NATSIOS: Well, I'm not expecting anything. I'm hoping the Turkish government -- you have a lot of very able administrators and business people in Turkey, and facilitating trade, for example -- I have to say one thing. The Ba'athist Party maintained control of the economy, and they had very limited markets in the food area, because the government ran the whole food distribution system. We're hoping that all the borders will open up on both sides to allow food deliveries in commercially, so that people can build the markets up. The Iraqis are very good business people if they're allowed to run their own businesses. And one thing we want to do is develop the business sector, and the Turkish business sector is very robust and very strong, and we're hoping perhaps that they can help us with that. But there are also Turkish companies that may bid as subcontractors, too. MODERATOR: Third row, second from the left. QUESTION: Imad Neki (ph), with Interpress Service again. Sir, I'm interested in your reaction to some reports that American missionary NGOs have decided to start their aid work from Jordan and northern Iraq, given the instability in the area to do this kind of work. And I'm also interested in whether USAID is funding any of these NGOs -- what exactly is your relationship with them? MR. NATSIOS: Well, I don't know which NGOs you mean, so I can't say. QUESTION: (Inaudible.) QUESTION: Same question. MR. NATSIOS: That's the same question; I answered that earlier. There are faith-based NGOs that do not proselytize that we give grants to all over the world -- we gave them in Afghanistan. I have to say, I don't think -- I think Samaritans First and these other groups may well be in Afghanistan; I'm not sure they've had any converts, however. MODERATOR: Fourth row, here. MR. NATSIOS: So I'm not sure people should worry too much. QUESTION: (Inaudible.) MR. NATSIOS: Well, it depends on the groups. If they're technically competent but they don't cause disruption, we fund them -- it depends on the group. QUESTION: (Inaudible.) MR. NATSIOS: Yes. We do not allow any U.S. government funds to be used for proselytizing or converting people or distinguishing people. When you get a grant from the U.S. government, you give based on need, not based on religion or ethnic group or racial group. People will be fed whether they're Shi'a, Sunni, Kurds, Assyrians, what ever they are -- Turkmen. You get fed based on need, and if any NGO violates that rule, we take their money away from them. QUESTION: Sorry, again, you know -- let's forget about the government. Let's say, a big Turkish company, construction company, with international experience, would like to build something -- you know, roads or anything -- to help reconstruction in Iraq. Where this company should go; where should this company apply? MR. NATSIOS: Well, it depends on whether they want to do it with their own money or Turkish government money, European money or American money. If they want to use British money, the British are about to start letting out bids. So are the Japanese. You can go there if you want. The Saudis may do the same thing. Or they can come to us. It depends on what they'd like to do. QUESTION: What does it concern you -- I mean, which money? I mean, they could get some help from the government or help from other companies. MR. NATSIOS: It doesn't concern me, but if they want to -- QUESTION: But where should they go, I mean, if they want to -- MR. NATSIOS: I would suggest -- QUESTION: It's not clear to me. MR. NATSIOS: Well, that's the way these reconstruction efforts work. It's not a centralized system, where one country controls everything. It's decentralized and each donor government -- the British aid agency's called DIFIT (ph), Claire Short's the head of it, I'm sure she's very famous, you all know who Claire Short is, she's my counterpart in Great Britain. They're bidding their own contracts out now. Okay? If the Turks would like to know, Turkish business people, who to apply for, they should go to the website of each of the donor aid agencies that have pledged publicly that they will participate in the reconstruction. The Economic Cooperation Council of Japan, which is part of the Foreign Ministry, is doing the Japanese part of this. So, I would just go into the Ankara -- the Ankara embassies for all the major agencies for donor governments -- everybody knows which ones they are: Canada, Japan, the U.S., Britain, Germany is going to help, the Dutch are going to help, the Danes, the Norwegians, the Swedes, the Italians, now the Spaniards have announced some. And look in the embassy on the website and see what their aid agency is about to do, and then -- you can do that, you can register on our website, and it will say which are the prime contractors; if you're interested in being a subcontractor, contact them at this telephone number. QUESTION: They cannot be a prime contractor. MR. NATSIOS: They cannot be prime contractors. MODERATOR: One last question here. One last question. You had another turn. Yes? You just now raised your hand, sorry. QUESTION: (Name and affiliation inaudible.) I hope it's a new point. I'm not sure if you have a timeline for your mission, and a matter of one year, two years, you are hoping that you will achieve half of the mission, all of the mission? And judging from your knowledge of the needs of Iraq -- humanitarian needs of Iraq -- do you have in mind an approximate figure of all their own needs, how much it will cost to finish the job? Thank you. MR. NATSIOS: In terms of the timeline, and this is a distinction here -- in Afghanistan, we expect to be there 10 or 20 years. In Iraq, we expect to be there one to two years for our part of it. This is not the State Department or the military; you have to talk to them. But our intention is to have a mission there for a year. This is not an underdeveloped country. This is not even a poor country. It's a rich country that had a predatory and tyrannical leadership that was basically looting the national treasury for their own purposes. If that money from the oil can be put into the national treasury for public services, there's no need for an aid agency to be there for very long. We just have to start the process up, and then the Iraqi people can use their own oil revenues to rebuild the rest of their country, because they're a potentially very rich country. This should be a middle class, functioning country. It's not a third world country. It has extensive infrastructure, it used to have very high child -- low child mortality rates, used to have very high literacy rates. All of that has deteriorated. That can be built up fairly easily. There used to be a large middle class in Iraq. It's gone away now. It can be rebuilt quickly. QUESTION: Total figures? MR. NATSIOS: We will not know the total figures until there is an assessment. We've asked the World Bank and the other donors, because this is typically how this works -- usually, we have the World Bank do an assessment of each sector: Education, health, water, sewerage, roads and bridges, et cetera. And then, we choose which areas of the assessed need we will do as donors. That's how we did Afghanistan, how we did Kosovo, how we did Bosnia, how we did Mozambique, Eritrea, Ethiopia. That's the typical way in which the international community -- And this past -- not this past weekend, but the -- nine days ago, the World Bank met, and while there was initial opposition by the bank to do this assessment, because there's been no Security Council resolutions, they said that they will agree in -- despite the absence of a Security Council resolution, to do an early assessment. That will tell us how much it's going to cost to rebuild the whole country. And until that -- because we haven't been in the country to do these assessments until now. QUESTION: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: I would guess in the next month. MODERATOR: I'm sorry. One last question, then -- QUESTION: Thanks. Jim Wolf, Reuters. Can you talk a little bit about that subcontracting process? In other words, what kind of transparency will there be? Will those subcontracts all be announced? Will they also be recorded on your Web pages? And does USAID typically exercise any sort of controls on who is picked as subcontractors -- in other words, to make sure that the people can meet the U.S. government contracting rules and such? MR. NATSIOS: We don't want to slow down the process. Okay? However, there is a provision of federal contracting law, the federal acquisitions, called FARS, that says if we are dissatisfied as we monitor -- we have -- we're going to have the Corps of Engineers monitor the construction effort, which is a U.S. government agency. And if they become concerned about the way in which subcontractors are being chosen, we then can impose an individual approval on each subcontractor. Normally we would not do that, but if we find there are problems, we can do it. So the prime contractors know that. They know that they're subject to U.S. government regulations, federal law and AID procedure. And if they don't conform to it, then we will begin to exercise much more intrusive control over who they choose. QUESTION: But will the actual subcontracts be made public as a matter of policy all the time? MR. NATSIOS: Yes. Yes. They -- not all the time, because they may have a little -- let's say they have a little contact to buy water for one of their teams for a thousand dollars. They're not going to bid that out. They're just going to go out and buy the water. QUESTION: And you made the point -- MR. NATSIOS: I think -- I -- QUESTION: You made the point that just because a country supported the United States doesn't mean that its companies will be eligible or get better -- what about conversely? Will a country like France, which opposed, be less likely to get contracts for any reason? MR. NATSIOS: We are going to base -- we've told the contractors to base -- this is the prime contractors -- on federal acquisition laws. Federal acquisition law says the lowest price for the highest quality product. People have to bid, particularly for anything -- I think it's over $10 million you have to bid. And people will bid. QUESTION: How about people -- (off mike)? MR. NATSIOS: That's very important. That's what I'm worried about. QUESTION: And when you say we -- (off mike) -- MODERATOR: Ah, ah, ah. Let's not yell out questions, please. QUESTION: -- (off mike) -- MR. NATSIOS: U.S. government. MODERATOR: All right. Let's wrap it up, please. QUESTION: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: I'm the administrator of USAID. QUESTION: (Off mike.) MR. NATSIOS: I have certain requirements under federal law -- not under international law, federal law -- as to how I respond. I report to the secretary of State. He reports to the president. I report to the U.S. Congress and the American taxpayers, who give us our money. MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Andrew. END.