Shafaq News-Fallujah
A culturalcenter project in Fallujah has sat unfinished, frozen at roughly 70% completionsince construction began in 2014, an informed source in al-Anbar Province toldShafaq News Saturday.
He cited achain of administrative failures, funding shortfalls, and allegations ofcorruption that have kept the building dark while the city it was meant toserve continues to rebuild.
Fallujah, acity in al-Anbar Province roughly 60 kilometers west of Baghdad, was among theIraqi cities most severely damaged during the armed conflict with the IslamicState (ISIS) between 2014 and 2016. The cultural center was conceived as partof the city's post-conflict recovery, intended to anchor civic and cultural lifein a community that lost much of its public infrastructure during years offighting and displacement.
The contractorassigned to the project received the full funds allocated before his contractwith the provincial authority was terminated, the source said. “Subsequentefforts to restart construction, particularly from 2021 onward, produced notangible results through 2025. Work resumed briefly this year but stopped againwhen budget allocations ran out.”
While financialmismanagement accounts for part of the delay, the source pointed to anothertroubling development: the budget line covering the furnishing of the completedcenter was quietly removed from the project's scope.
In themeantime, the cultural center's staff operate from a temporary caravan on landset aside by the provincial government, waiting for a main building, located inthe city's southern district, that has been "nearly finished" foryears.
No formalexplanation has been issued by provincial authorities.
