PRTs understaffed, underqualified

"In Diyala, the vast province northeast of Baghdad where Sunnis and Shiites are battling for primacy with mortars and nighttime abductions, the U.S. government has contracted the job of promoting democracy to a Pakistani citizen who has never lived or worked in a democracy.
The management of reconstruction projects in the province has been assigned to a Border Patrol commander with no reconstruction experience. . . . The post of agriculture adviser has gone unfilled because the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided just one of the six farming experts the State Department asked for a year ago.
. . . The provincial reconstruction teams like those in Diyala are often understaffed and underqualified -- and almost unable to work outside the military outposts where they are hunkered down for security reasons. Today, there are just 10 of the 30-person teams operating in all of Iraq.
. . . The teams are supposed to be up and running by next month."

source
Chandrasekaran, Rajiv. (The Washington Post). Iraq Rebuilding Short on Qualified Civilians. February 24, 2007.

posted: sunday, february 25, 2007, 3:02 AM ET
update: sunday, february 25, 2007, 3:09 AM ET

tags: iraq provincial reconstruction team