Meeting with Qubad Talabani to discuss the 400 bed hospital

Rizgar Khoshnaw | Exclusive to iKurd.net

In the past ten years, I have met with Qubad Talabani five times to discuss business opportunities in Kurdistan. The first time I met with him in Washington, DC we discussed the oil-for-food program. After that meeting, we met again and we covered other opportunities, such oil and construction projects, in Kurdistan. One project that I worked on diligently was the 400 bed hospital for Sulaimani because I Knew the urgent need for such project in Kurdistan.

It was July 2004 when my company owner, Mr. “G” as I have referred to in my past articles, had asked me to meet with his friend in Baghdad and discuss construction projects for Kurdistan only. I had convinced Mr. “G” to work in Kurdistan and he agreed. This friend, Admiral David J. Nash, was the director of the Program Management Office for all of Iraq under the Coalition Provisional Authority. He was the top individual that was in charge of all of the contracts and rebuilding of Iraq at that time.

After meeting with Admiral Nash few times in his Baghdad office, he told me that there was a 400 bed hospital project in Kurdistan and for me to consider. Once he gave me this information, I contacted/met Qubad in Washington and we discussed this project. Qubad asked me to speak with the person in charge on this particular project, Herish Muhram, and to report back to him after my meeting. I must admit, and I always give credit where credit is due, that Qubad truly tried very hard to help me and my company with this project.

On July 12, 2004, I traveled to Sulaimani to meet with Herish and on July 15, at 10:00 am, I held a meeting with Herish and his staff (such as Dana Hussein Qadir among others) to discuss this project. They told me that the first thing that I needed was to study this project first. They provided me with three CDs containing all of the needed specifications and once we reviewed it, then we needed to provide them a cost estimate.

Two days later, I returned to Washington and had a meeting with Mr. “G” and we began to look into this project. After we held this meeting, Mr. “G” asked me to travel to Germany and meet with a company (AJZ Engineering) that specializes with such projects. I traveled to Germany and held a meeting with three personnel from AJZ Engineering and I told them that we were interested in joining forces with them to build this hospital in Kurdistan and the agreed.

After my meeting in Germany, I returned to Washington and held a meeting with Mr. “G” and other partners and I discussed my meeting with AJZ. To make a long story short, the figure/amount that everyone had in mind for such project was around $150 million to build a first class hospital and this project would be completed in two years.

After gathering this information, I contacted Hersih and told him what we had in mind. He, as well as his advisors, thought we were out of our minds to have come up with such price!! They said that they found a company that would “implement” this project for only $57 million!

I do not know how Herish determined that the price/amount we gave him was too much? What experience did he have at that time ( or even now) to say that he could build such hospital, which Kurdistan never had, for $57 million? It is amazing how people in Kurdistan just guess on projects and work and hope that they are right! This is one reason we can not get a head in Kurdistan.

I shared this information with Mr. “G” and our partners and they told me that there is no way on earth anyone could build and equip a 400 bed hospital for this price any where in the world. The machines/equipments (not including the building it self) that are required for such hospital alone would run around that price; the $57 million.

No long after that, I found out that Herish was “invited” to Korea for a whole month on a fully paid “visit” by the Koreans and shortly after his return, he awarded this contract to the Koreans. As soon as I found out, I e-mailed Qubad and told him that there is no way that this hospital is ever going to be built. I was right seven years ago and I am right now. I say that because this hospital was never built!!

It was ironic that during my trip to Kurdistan this January that I found out what happen to this 400 bed hospital. I picked up the weekly news paper, KurdishGlobe No. 290 January, 2011, and I read a story/article titled, “Protesters Demand Sulaimani’s 400 Bed Hospital Completed.” After reading the article, I found out the same Korean company that Herish awarded this contract to, stole $25,561,197 and fled Kurdistan!! Now the Kurds refer to this hospital as the “400 YEAR hospital!!” because they have given up on having a decent hospital!!

What is KRG thinking? Why is this happening? Why is it that many people within the KRG do not care about the well being of their citizens? What upsets me more than anything else, not only Hersih was not fired or reprimanded, but he was promoted!! As we all know now the position that he holds and travels the world drumming up corrupt business!! Any where else in the world such individual would not be any where near business or hold a political position for his corruption and mismanagement. But in Kurdistan “it is not what you know, but who you know” that gets you ahead!! And of course, if you honest, you can not succeed in Kurdistan no matter what.

As I had written in my previous article, I have witnessed death of young children due to the poor health care system in Kurdistan and that must change. Kurdistan is not poor and there is no excuses for not having a good health care available to the public.

I am sure if we had a better health care system in place in Kurdistan the loss of innocent Lazo Salam, among many other children, last week could have been prevented. I almost lost my son in one of those so called “hospitals” in Kurdistan five years ago and I will never ever forget that miserable day. The only different between me and my fellow Kurds living in Kurdistan is that I am an American citizen with a choice and I am not forced to live in Kurdistan. I left Kurdistan with my family few days after this horrifying incident and vowed to never bring them back and I have kept my promise.

Rizgar Xoshnaw, a senior Kurdish writer based in Washington, a longtime contributing writer and columnist for iKurd.net.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.