The double threat of CERP funding

When students in Tarmiyah, Iraq, returned to school in September, they were welcomed by new classrooms full of new furniture and supplies. Their school, northwest of Baghdad, also had new electrical and sewer systems.


After conducting a final assessment of improvements made to the Huda Teacher’s School on Oct. 20, Army 1st Lt. Erik Peterson, a native of Littleton Colo., who serves in Multinational Division Baghdad with the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, met with the contractor, paid him the remaining funds for completion of his work and thanked him for a job well done.

This school is one of many reconstruction projects throughout Tarmiyah designed to provide the city’s residents more opportunity and a better way of life.

“When we first arrived here in December 2007, I visited a girl’s school that had no bathrooms,” Peterson said. “Now the schools have brand new classrooms, lights, chalkboards, furniture and sanitary bathrooms with septic systems. The students now have the ability to wash their hands.”

The children are attending much better schools and receiving a higher quality education, he added.

Fatima, a 6th grade student who attends one of the renovated schools, said her school is much better than it was.

“The doors have been painted, and we have lights and fans in our classrooms,” she said. “We learn about animals, reading, writing and how to speak a little bit of English. I love going to school.”

About $3 million will be invested into the reconstruction of Tarmiyah, with 13 school renovations, a media center, a bank, an ambulance center, road paving and solar lights among the scheduled projects.

Funding for the reconstruction is provided through the provincial council and the Iraqi Commanders Emergency Relief Program, or ICERP, which allows the local government to get money for projects quickly and efficiently and to participate in the planning process.

“ICERP is Iraqi money managed by coalition forces so that we can use our paperwork system to spend and track where everything goes,” Peterson said. “Unlike the United States government, the government of Iraq’s current budget system is in the initial stages of development for delivery of a capital budget to the [communities] from the provincial level.”

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=51677


This is awesome! In addition to the US CERP program below, the Iraqi's have there own CERP program!

The Congress appropriated $923 million for the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP), of which $510 million was allocated to the Multi-National Corps-Iraq (MNC-I), a subordinate command of the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I). CERP enables U.S. military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan to undertake a variety of non-construction and construction activities to respond to urgent humanitarian relief and reconstruction requirements in their areas of responsibility. This may include making condolence payments after combat operations, providing funds for repairs, purchasing critical infrastructure equipment, or conducting large-scale civic cleanups that employ as many Iraqis as possible. As of September 30, 2006, MNC-I reported it had obligated $510 million for over 3,800 CERP projects.

http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA466617

As you can see thousands of projects have been completed with this type of funding.
And with the Iraqi's developing a similar program it just doubles the effect of this already amazing program.


This article describes a program by which field commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan can fund initiatives to win hearts and minds, hunt enemies, and promote the growth of local institutions in this unorthodox phase of war. The Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) is novel and important, providing U.S. governmental appropriations directly to tactical units for the purpose of meeting emergency needs of local Iraqi and Afghan civilians. The CERP's novelty and importance present challenges for implementation of the program, as the undisciplined or uncoordinated use of CERP funds could result in Congress abruptly ending them. Such a fate is worth averting, because the program's early success demonstrates that relatively small amounts of money spent locally and intelligently by commanders can yield great benefits.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6052/is_2004_Feb/ai_115695635



In addition there are still projects under construction with the initial reconstruction money the US invested in Iraq. And general reconsruction money the Iraqi government is distribuiting!