YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK BRINGING 'FREEDOM'

 

 

Fraud surges to new high in Iraq

 

'Millions missing' from Iraq fund
BBC News Friday, 7 December 2007 / 11:31:33 GMT

WASHINGTON — A $5.2 billion (£2.6 bn) fund used to train and
equip Iraqi security forces cannot be shown to have been used
properly, US military auditors say in a new report.

Sloppy accounting by the US army command meant there was
no paper trail for much of the spending, they say.

The report, based on a visit from March to May this year, said
high levels of violence made it hard to oversee management
of the fund.

However, it also said commanders had begun implementing
recommended changes.

Money wasted

The report said the Multi-National Security Transition
Command-Iraq was unable to provide "reasonable assurance"
that money was not wasted and that the intended results had
been achieved.

And it could not always show that equipment, services and
construction had been delivered properly.

In the report, the Inspector-General's office called for
improvements to the way the command kept track of money.

The report highlighted a number of shortcomings including:

  • a paper trail available for only 12.9% of arms, ammunition
    and other purchases worth $643 million
  • a paper trail available for only 1% of a separate series
    of purchases worth $82.8 million
  • only 13 of 31 heavy-tracked recovery vehicles worth
    $10.2 million could be accounted for
  • only 12 of 18 rubbish trucks worth $700,000 could be
    accounted for
  • no proof that 2,126 of 2,943 generators worth $7 million
    had been received by Iraqi security forces
But the report was happier with the way the command had
purchased services. It said there was documentation for 95.5%
of $1.2 billion spent on food preparation, maintenance, sanitation,
freight, lodging and security.

Corruption a second insurgency

This is the latest in a series of reports criticizing economic
performance in Iraq.

In October, the US State Department said a $1.2 billion contract
for training Iraqi police was so badly managed that auditors did not
know how the money was spent. The private US company running
the program, DynCorp, said there had been no intentional fraud.

In July, the head of the US agency overseeing reconstruction in
Iraq, Stuart Bowen, told the BBC that economic mismanagement
and corruption were equivalent to a second insurgency.

At the same time Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi NGOs said nearly
a third of the population was in need of immediate emergency aid.

And in January, Mr Bowen said in a report to the US Congress that
millions of dollars of US reconstruction funds were being wasted.