Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi confirmed that he was committed to reforms and even it “costing his life”, accusing corrupt politicians of obstructing his reform plans and saving the country from loss.
He said the “electric power collection program” is a necessity to enable the state to conserve energy by rationalizing it as a national treasure.
He said in a meeting with energy experts, academics, regulators and state media, that was a comprehensive review of the experience of collection, and the diagnosis of some of the shortcomings and weaknesses that emerged in the application and put solutions.
He added that the success of the program means providing the best services to the community in the field of electricity and all service and development related to the provision of electricity.
Abadi stressed that the project of collection adopted by the government will provide electricity to citizens over 24 hours, and that “the victory of the security forces over the terrorist ISIS was to defend all citizens and serve them without discrimination, so what is required of all officials and governors is to cooperate and compete in providing services and go on with this approach without bias on the basis of party or national or doctrinal.”
Abbadi pointed out, that the draft electricity collection will provide electricity over 24 hours for citizens at a suitable price and just according to consumption, and it is not reasonable to continue wasting money without addressing the imbalance in electricity in electric current in all these years and those who lead the campaign against the project are by some corrupt who are beneficiaries of the continuing of Electricity crisis .
The General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers launched on 25 November 2017, a media campaign entitled “Service and collection” to identify investment projects for service contracts and collection in order to end the crisis of electric power in the country.
According to Abbadi’s directives to the Ministry of Electricity to stop the financial waste, promote electricity and educate citizens to rationalize consumption and reduce waste ,the rationalization is one of the most important steps towards reform and development for its citizens, and full control over abuses and the fight against corrupt and violators.
Abadi said that the case of the poor citizen has been studied in a scientific manner and we have reached the real cost, which is estimated at less than the monthly mobile cost.
He pointed out that those who oppose privatization, and protest against it, there are no electric meters in their homes, stressing that their motives are inflammatory from generators Mafias, who do not want the success of the experiment to serve the citizen and the homeland.
The Iraqi Minister of Electricity, Qassim Fahdawi pointed out the plan of the Ministry in educating the citizen to the concept of the project partnership with the private sector contracts (collection and service).
He said that the ministry started the project two years ago and achieved great success in eliminating the excesses and reducing the proportion of the rumors. He pointed out that there is a large gap between production and distribution because of the waste of electric power through excesses on the electrical grid in the distribution sector. The wage bill is issued from the ministry and not from the company and the company is a link between the ministry and the citizen.
Al-Fahdawi stressed on the education and awareness of citizens to reduce consumption and waste of electricity consumption to promote the reality of this sector of electricity as rationalization is one of the most important steps to success in maintaining it, valuing the role of religious Marja in Najaf on the prohibition of overtaking on the electrical grid by citizens.
In the same context, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a seminar on investment and privatization of electricity, service and collection in this sector, which is supported by those who ar performing the program of collection in all governorates, and interest in educating citizens and stop waste and lose in electricity.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Mahjoub said: “All Iraqi ministries have hosted representatives of the Ministry of Electricity to promote and introduce this subject,” to serve the citizen and to stop waste, and abuses on electric power.
“The hosting is part of the governmental cooperation between state institutions and ministries; to familiarize employees in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this project,” in the direction of the Iraqi government to support the draft collection.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Electricity Musab al-Mudaris for the representatives of the demonstrators against privatization in the provinces of Babylon and Diwaniyah, that the contracts of service and collection are partnerships with the private sector and not privatization, as promoted by the media and the Iraqi street, stressing that partnership with the private sector within the service contracts and collection are able to resolve the crisis of electric power in the country, the fact that the ministry has reached the production of energy is about “16 thousand” megawatts, but the rumors exceeded half of this amount because of waste and abuse and lose.
He also stressed that by following the process of selling energy to citizens and eliminating the rumors we can solve the crisis, indicating that the ministry has achieved success stories in this direction in a number of areas of the capital Baghdad, which their citizens showed satisfaction with the stability of electricity and low wages.
The Ministry of Electricity indicated that it is seeking to implement the collection program to preserve the interest of the poor citizen and not to overload his burdens with payment to the owners of the generators, pointing to a mature experience to implement the program in the Yarmouk area in the capital Baghdad, which applied this project, it was gaining 29 MW before the application of the project , compared to 12 hours of processing, and after the implementation of the project became consumption 14 MW compared to 24 hours of processing, and this means a decrease in consumption, and an indication that there is a waste stopped by citizens.
And al-Mudaris pointer out the importance of service contracts and collection concluded with the private sector, based on the federal budget law for 2016 and 2017, which requires the ministry to deal with the private sector to eliminate the rumors that reached 65%, stressing that partnership with the private sector has an important role to preserve the electric energy and reduce the waste and lose where the ministry has 4 million regular subscribers to the five categories: residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial and governmental, and about one million irregular subscribers, surpassing distribution networks, especially with the housing crisis after 2003.
al-Mudaris added that the work began to convert agricultural land to residential complexes, but the controls and instructions do not allow the distribution departments to extend networks and set meters only after the citizen provides land registration , registered the type of the residential land so as the citizen not to have to bypass the grid.
al-Mudaris added that the list of prices is subsidized by the state to alleviate the burdens of the citizen to pay the generators and not pay for electricity, indicating that the rate paid by the citizen for the generators annually 10 billion dollars, but if he paid 30% or 40% of this amount to the Ministry of Electricity , he will enjoy a permanent and stable 24 hours .
He refuted what was claimed by the promoters who want to undermine this project and they don’t want this project to succeed which it serves the interest of the Iraqi citizen pointing out that the general meaning of privatization is the sale of state property and this project does not involve the sale of any state property, but rather a service and collection project.
The director of relations and information at the Ministry of Electricity Ahmed Jihad Abbas said that the project is in the interest of all segments of society, especially the poor and those with limited income, stressing that the electricity pricing is fixed and can not be manipulated by the company and supported by the state by 94% , these are easy amounts and the citizen can pay it
He said that the electricity bill is issued by the ministry and not from the company, which is a link between the citizen and the ministry. He explained that the goal of the project is to eliminate the rumors and excesses which amounted to 65% and will provide electricity for 24 hours and less than the prices paid to generators.
One of the successful experiences of the privatization of electricity in Iraq is the experience of Mas Holding Group, one of the world’s leading companies in the field of energy. It is characterized by accuracy in work, availability of modern equipment and mechanisms, and efficient national and international expertise and the company can work in the hardest conditions.
The group is characterized by meticulous work accuracy, flawless measurement devices and imported expertise; with other authentic Iraqi expertise and strict controls, and recorded successes in energy in the Middle East in general and the Kurdistan of Iraq and Baghdad in particular.
Among the successes achieved by Mas company is the implementation of Basmaya investment project, which works with a capacity of (1040) MW, which was said by the Minister of Electricity Qasim Mohammed Fahdawi: “We are proud to inaugurate the first investment power plant , implemented in record time, and in difficult circumstances, to contribute significantly to provide the electricity system “He said, referring to the praise of prime minister and officials of Mas Holding Company, as it is the only one to complete works in a record time and high trust.
The record for the success of Mas Holding Power Company in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is the agreement to purchase energy from the wind power plant with a capacity of 100 MW with Jordan National Electricity Company. The duration of the agreement is 20 years and the investment value is between 220-230 million USD. Mass Holding group owns Competitiveness , especially in the energy sector, so that its name became a pride for the national industry.
The electricity sector is suffering from the owners of generators who seek to achieve material gains at the expense of the citizen with the support of some powerful parties, which do not hesitate to steal and loot the money of the Iraqi people through crises such as the electricity crisis, which they do not want to resolve, so they continue to blackmail the people and deprive them of their basic rights Life, for malicious purposes that have become exposed to every one .
The development of the phenomenon of local generators and its grid network to drain the Iraqi economy to spend millions of dollars in vain, in addition to its ugly appearance in the streets of Iraq and its alleys and cities and the import of small cheap generators that they drain the effort of the citizen and his pocket.
And of the damage of civil generators , which is a temporary solutions to reduce the electricity crisis at the expense of the citizen, are frequent power cuts, environmental pollution and health damage, and the fires of large markets that occur from time to time due to accidents of electricity between the hundreds of wires hanging on the walls of shops and buildings, Noise, and the emission of toxic gases.
it is worth to be noted that the prices of electricity supply through generators put burdens heavily on the citizen
Where he is paying at least 100 – 150 thousand dinars per month as wages to provide energy through generators, all go to powerful parties, in addition to what the citizen pays the electricity bills for the state, which put the heavy burden on the citizen because the cost of the dependence on the generators is expensive because of its heavy consumption of fuel .
Shatha Khalil
Researcher in Economic Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies