From the same story:
"In one example, the audit said the CPA paid for 74,000 guards even though the actual number could not be validated. In another, 8,206 guards were listed on a payroll but only 603 people doing the work could be counted"
August 10, 2004
Iraq Reconstruction: How Not To Do It
Late last year, an investigation by Mother Jones uncovered a network of K Street firms in Washington that were lobbying government officials for reconstruction contracts in Iraq. Timothy Mills, a partner at Patton Boggs, a lobbying firm, said that the rebuilding process in Iraq was nothing less than a government-sanctioned bonanza: "Western companies, if they make the right connections early enough, have the potential of being swept into the mainstream of Iraqi commerce." Charges of cronyism ran rampant. But only over the past few months has the media discovered that this cronyism was such an integral reason for the botched reconstruction effort. Iraq, it turns out, has been ill-served by those who have tried to rebuild it.
On Monday, The New York Times spoke out, saying, "Things have gone so obviously wrong with America's approach to rebuilding Iraq." The list of failures runs long. Of the $18.4 billion allocated for reconstruction last fall, only $600 million has been put to use. (At the time of the handover, authorities had spent a paltry $366 million.) Meanwhile, many projects remain stalled, stifled by both the unstable security conditions and the incompetence of the occupation authorities.
None of this is exactly new information. But when one takes the broad view of the reconstruction process, the breadth and depth of corruption and incompetence remains staggering. The blame extends all the way up, from the civilian occupation in Iraq, to the private reconstruction contractors, to the Bush administration itself.
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http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2004/08/08_513.htmlWednesday 4th August 2004 :
$1.9 Billion of Iraq’s Money Goes to U.S. Contractors
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Halliburton Co. and other U.S. contractors are being paid at least $1.9 billion from Iraqi funds under an arrangement set by the U.S.-led occupation authority, according to a review of documents and interviews with government agencies, companies and auditors.
Most of the money is for two controversial deals that originally had been financed with money approved by the U.S. Congress, but later shifted to Iraqi funds that were governed by fewer restrictions and less rigorous oversight.
For the first 14 months of the occupation, officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority provided little detailed information about the Iraqi money, from oil sales and other sources, that it spent on reconstruction contracts. They have said that it was used for the benefit of the Iraqi people and that most of the contracts paid from Iraqi money went to Iraqi companies. But the CPA never released information about specific contracts and the identities of companies that won them, citing security concerns, so it has been impossible to know whether these promises were kept.
The CPA has said it has awarded about 2,000 contracts with Iraqi money. Its inspector general compiled records for the major contracts, which it defined as those worth $5 million or more each. Analysis of those and other records shows that 19 of 37 major contracts funded by Iraqi money went to U.S. companies and at least 85 percent of the total $2.26 billion was obligated to U.S. companies. The contracts that went to U.S. firms may be worth several hundred million more once the work is completed.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37822-2004Aug3?language=printerhttp://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=2435+U.S. Won't Turn Over Data for Iraq Audits
By Colum Lynch
Aug 12, 2004, 19:14
Friday, July 16, 2004; Page A16
UNITED NATIONS, July 15 -- The Bush administration is withholding information from U.N.-sanctioned auditors examining more than $1 billion in contracts awarded to Halliburton Co. and other companies in Iraq without competitive bidding, the head of the international auditing board said Thursday.
Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, the U.N. representative to the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB), said that the United States has repeatedly rebuffed his requests since March to turn over internal audits, including one that covered three contracts valued at $1.4 billion that were awarded to Halliburton, a Texas-based oil services firm. It has also failed to produced a list of other companies that have obtained contracts without having to compete.
The Security Council established the IAMB, which includes representatives from the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, in May 2003 to ensure that Iraq's oil revenue would be managed responsibly during the U.S. occupation. The council extended its mandate in July so it could continue to monitor the use of Iraq's oil revenue after the United States transferred political authority to the Iraqis in June.
The dispute comes as the board released an initial audit by the accounting firm KPMG on Thursday that sharply criticized the U.S.-led coalition's management of billions of dollars in Iraqi oil revenue. The audit also raised concerns about lax financial controls in some Iraqi ministries, citing poor bookkeeping and duplicate payments of salaries to government employees.
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http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_10845.shtml