Ghazni PRT attends PDC meeting

GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan (June 20) – The Ghazni Provincial Reconstruction Team met with the Provincial Development Council June 20 at the Governor’s Compound in Ghazni City.

The council invited the Ghazni PRT to sit and discuss which projects were on its priority list and which projects the PRT could help with.

“I want the people to care for their communities,” said Governor of Ghazni Province Musa Khan to the PRT before the meeting.

He did not want the PRT to do all the projects.

“The Provincial Development Council must do their jobs,” he said.

The PRT was asked to help fund two generators for the Governor’s Compound to power the area more efficiently and to help construct a 10 kilometer road, which would act as a bypass for commercial traffic around Ghazni City. The governor’s last request was for an airport, a task not taken lightly because it would require a trained aviation staff.

The airport was an idea to prepare for the 2013 Center for Islamic Culture that Ghazni City was selected to hold earlier in 2007. The city is busy trying to renovate historical landmarks and prepare for visitors from around the world. Time is nearing, and the Governor has already started cleaning the city for the upcoming event.

“The people are happy we have cleaned the hotels and the barbershops,” he told the PRT. “They are much cleaner than before.”

The governor and his staff have started a program to improve cleanliness in several areas, including hotels, barbershops and butcher shops, and he has discouraged people from disposing their waste in the streets.

Besides cleanliness, the governor’s other priority is security. In fact, he has encouraged Ghazni citizens to shun the insurgents and provide zero assistance to them. He warned them that the presence of insurgents is hurting their cause to improve Ghazni province.   

The governor plans to visit Kabul next week to meet with the government about projects for Ghazni province.

“I will bring the list of 64 projects that we have for this year,” he said. “I will ask for funds from international donors and ambassadors for this Islamic event. Even if they agree on 10 projects, and we do six projects here, that will at least be 16 projects. That will be a success for us.”  

The Ghazni PRT provided the governor with a list of projects currently under construction in his province and updated him with new ones.
 
"We recently received funding for two bridge projects in Nawur district,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Stefan Yesko, Ghazni PRT chief engineer from Woodbridge, Va. “We will be working with our Polish partners here in Ghazni, as they will also be funding two bridge projects in the same vicinity."

Yesko also told the council that he wanted to speak with the local engineers to obtain more information and to work more closely with Afghan members before committing to new projects.

The council asked the U.S. and Polish troops to provide them with information on PRT projects.

“Whenever any projects are done by the PRT, we should have all the documents about that project, especially information about the contractor and how much it costs, because we are also responsible to our government,” said Hosni Mubarak Azizi, the Director of Education.

The PRT agreed and felt that transparency was the key to project success.

“We also want as much transparency as possible,” said Mark Fleming, the PRT Department of State representative from Richmond, Va. “We are your partners in the development of this province and the foundation of our relationship is mutual trust.”

The Ghazni PRT Commander, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Philip Kapusta, assured the council that the PRT makes its contractors adhere to their building regulations.

“We certainly want to do good quality projects,” Kapusta said. “It doesn’t do us any good to have our name associated with poor quality projects.”