Iraq Squander-Mania ($9 billion with a B)

[Nbadan]

Audit: $9 Billion Unaccounted for in Iraq

January 30, 2005 11:51 PM EST

WASHINGTON - The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries, which lacked financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, an inspector general has found.

The U.S. officials relied on Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds but those offices were not even functioning when the funds were transferred between October 2003 and June 2004, according to an audit by a special U.S. inspector general.

The findings were released Sunday by Stuart Bowen Jr., special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Bowen issued several reports on the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004.

The official who led the CPA, L. Paul Bremer III, submitted a blistering, written reply to the findings, saying the report had "many misconceptions and inaccuracies," and lacked professional judgment.

more...

ENews

I guess now we know how Bremer earned that Presidential Medal. Bet most of that stolen taxpayer money is in the RNC couffers right about now.

[whottt]

I hate potluck.

[Nbadan]

Yeah, and the whole "Oil for Food" loss thing, was (is) a distraction story for the
"Oil gone missing" story that silently broke a few days later.

Wednesday, 15 December, 2004

US 'failed to control' Iraq oil
By Mark Gregory
BBC World Service business correspondent

The panel said US-led authorities failed to deal with widespread oil smuggling

A United Nations panel has found that the US-led occupation authority failed to exercise proper controls over Iraq's oil industry and could not say how much oil had gone missing since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The International Advisory and Monitoring Board report also said there were "important weaknesses" in the management by occupation officials of up to $20bn in Iraqi funds, mostly from oil sales.

US politicians have often accused the UN of incompetence and, perhaps, corruption in its handling of the oil-for-food programme, a scheme to alleviate Iraqi suffering under sanctions before the war. Now the boot is on the other foot.

Revenue 'lost'

The panel, which also includes representatives from the IMF and the World Bank, expressed particular concern about how large contracts paid out of Iraqi funds were given to US firms, such as the oil services group Halliburton , without compe ive bidding.

BBC News