Audit: Spending Records on Iraq Lacking

[Judi Lynn]

Audit: Spending Records on Iraq Lacking
UPDATED - Friday July 30, 2004 12:29am


Washington (AP) - U.S. authorities in Baghdad spent hundreds of millions of Iraqi dollars without keeping good enough records to show whether they got some services and products they paid for, government investigators said.

Officials of the former Coalition Provisional Authority did not have records to justify the $24.7 million cost for replacing Iraq's currency, according to the report from the authority's inspector general. The report also said the authority paid nearly $200,000 for 15 police trucks without knowing if the trucks were delivered.

The report, released in Iraq late Wednesday, is the first formal audit of contracting procedures under the authority, which oversaw billions of dollars in reconstruction spending that critics say was doled out without proper controls.

The agency's defenders say it did the best it could given the pressure of operating in a war zone and trying to get reconstruction going quickly.
(snip/...)

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0704/162656.html

:eyes:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's a working poll just to the right of the article, with these results:

Who do you trust more when it comes to fighting terrorism?

George W. Bush
51 %
John Kerry
39 %
Neither/No opinion
11 %

Total: 57084 votes

[saigon68]

1. OUT OF SIGHT

OUT OF MIND

[dbt]

2. Those records would lead right to The Dick.

Investigators fear that they would be told to go fuck theyself. Ergo: Nothing to see here. Move along.

:freak:
dbt

[sandraj]

3. I wonder whose pockets

all that money is lining right now. Corporate malfeasance/cooking the books seems to be the name of the game with this administration. Modern day robber barons.

[UpInArms]

4. related article: Audit Finds Fraud, Other Abuses in Iraq Contract Awards

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25914-2004Jul29.html

In its second report to Congress, the inspector general's office for the occupation authority that ruled Iraq until recently found significant cases of mismanagement, fraud, missing paperwork and manipulation in the awarding of contracts using millions of dollars of U.S. and Iraqi funds.

The Coalition Provisional Authority inspector general audit, to be released today, uncovered cases of abuse by officials of the occupation government. The report does not name names, but the inspector general's office said its work has resulted in 69 criminal investigations. Forty-two have been closed or sent to other investigative agencies and an additional 27 are still open.

According to the report, a high- ranking adviser for the CPA manipulated the contract-award system to bypass the bidding process for a security contract. The $7.2 million award was revoked, a $2.3 million advance payment was returned and the CPA official was fired. A Defense Department civilian who was a coach for an Iraqi amateur sports team was advanced $40,000 cash for expenses to take the team to compete in other countries. But the coach gave the funds to his military assistant, who gambled the money and lost some of it. The missing amount was then written off as a legitimate loss.

The inspector general's office also found weaknesses in the monitoring process for work done under CPA contracts. Its staffers went to inspect work for a contract for oil pipeline repair and found that employees were not in the field doing the labor specified by the contract. The contractor was docked $3.4 million for improper charges. Auditors also found that a different contractor providing security for the oil pipeline repair crew overcharged by $20,000.

<snip>

Many of the problems it found, like the lack of documentation, were systemic. The report said that the CPA comptroller created polices and regulations -- "although well intended" -- that did not ensure effective control over $600 million in Iraqi funds held as cash. It also could not properly account for property purchased by some of those contracts and valued at between $11.1 million and $26.2 million.

...more...

[Judi Lynn]

5. Great article, horrendous information!

For some reason, if you ever expected to learn sleazy things were being done with U.S. taxpayers' money, you'd definitely expect it to happen when good old compassionate uniter, "Christian" pResident _{George W. Bush} or a relative was somewhere near the helm.

[UpInArms]

6. I was always taught that

you go to hell for lying and stealing. :eyes:

[MichiganVote]

7. Wonder if George's God talks to him about that too.

[gratuitous]

8. And we continue to pour in another billion dollars every week

Your tax dollars at war.

[mbperrin]

9. Just can't be!!! We've restored integrity to accounting and so

on - hell, isn't MARTHA STEWART going to prison?

And since Bremer is George's cousin, everything MUST be OK!

Whew! had me worried until I refreshed myself with these "facts".......

[underpants]

10. Kerry-52%-Do you know what this report points out? FRAUD

Plain and simple. They couldn't find 52 of the 164 randomly selected items? Geesh my auditors would FLIP if that happened.