WASHINGTON - Tens of millions of dollars
originally slated for the reconstruction and
security of Iraq have been squandered on luxury
items such as an Olympic-sized swimming pool,
exclusive trailers, and buildings that were never
or rarely used, a US government watchdog says.
In eight new audits carried out over the
past quarter alone, US Special Inspector General
for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) Stuart Bowen
indicated that "corruption continues to plague
Iraq" and
that
"the security environment has continued to
deteriorate".
The audits, submitted to
Congress on Wednesday, reviewed US efforts to
support the capacity development of Iraq's
ministries, as well as the State Department's
management of funding for Iraqi police training, a
study of medical equipment purchased to support
the primary health-care centers, and a statistical
summary of security costs for major US contractors
in Iraq.
Among the examples of waste
documented in the 579-page report is that as part
of a contract awarded to DynCorp International
between July 2004 and June 2006, the State
Department paid US$43.8 million for manufacturing
and temporary storage of a residential camp that
has never been used.
That sum included
$4.2 million for unauthorized work that included
relocating the residential camp to outside of the
Adnan Palace grounds, building an additional 20
trailers for "very important people" and
constructing an Olympic-size swimming pool on the
palace grounds.
The State Department may
have also spent another $36.4 million on weapons
and equipment, including armored vehicles, body
armor and communications equipment, that cannot be
accounted for because "invoices were vague and
there was no backup documentation".
The
audit also found that a project for the Baghdad
Police College suffered a variety of shortfalls,
including poor construction quality, budget
overruns, and the delivery of unfinished
facilities.
"Anti-corruption institutions
in Iraq are fragmented and there does not appear
to be an internal Iraqi consensus about how these
institutions should interact," said the report.
The report also pointed a finger at the
deteriorating security situation, saying it is
"hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors
and threatening the overall reconstruction
effort".
It concludes that infrastructure
security remains vulnerable. Power lines are
attacked regularly and the northern oil pipelines
are largely inoperable because of sabotage. Iraqi
repair crews are frequently unable to work because
of repeated attacks.
The investigation
faulted "inconsistent coordination" among the many
US agencies supporting Iraq's reconstruction for
hampering the effective execution of US
assistance.
The report comes at a
particularly sensitive time for President George W
Bush, who is asking the US Congress to approve
$1.2 billion in new money for the reconstruction
of Iraq. On January 10, Bush presented a new
strategic direction for US efforts in Iraq that
includes more investment in Iraq's economic
recovery.
It comes also at a sensitive
time for other international donors such as the
United Nations, the World Bank and Iraq's regional
neighbors. The United States is trying to convince
them that Iraq, because of the security situation,
requires a "new phase of investment" through the
International Compact for Iraq. But corruption and
waste have undermined reconstruction efforts in
the occupied nation since 2003, with a long list
of reports documenting the abuses.
In
December, the Government Accountability Office,
the watchdog arm of Congress, released a report
that found multiple deficiencies in the US Army's
oversight of contractors in Iraq, including
"limited visibility over contractors", lack of
"adequate contractor oversight personnel", and
"little or no training on the use of contractors".
The now-defunct Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) also delivered more than $8.8
billion in cash to Iraqi ministries but several
later audits found there was virtually no tracking
of this money, much of which went to "ghost
employees".
Members of Congress in
Washington have been seeking information on
contracts entered by the Bush administration for
reconstruction and development work in Iraq,
including several billion-dollar contracts with a
subsidiary of Halliburton Corp.
Some US
lawmakers have raised concerns about the process
of awarding and overseeing government contracts,
including questions about the apparently inflated
prices charged by Halliburton to import gasoline
from Kuwait into Iraq and Halliburton's admission
of kickbacks to company officials.
SIGIR
investigators say they are still working on 78
open investigations, including 23 cases under
direct Justice Department supervision, implying
the possibility of major criminal charges.
Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003,
the Bush administration has spent more than $30
billion in US taxpayer funds and another $20
billion in Iraqi funds under its control for the
reconstruction effort. The war in general has
reportedly cost more than $450 billion.
Many lawmakers, however, say that despite
the vast expenditures, the reconstruction effort
has produced little of lasting value either for
the US or for Iraq.
Democratic Congressman
Henry Waxman, who has been particularly vocal in
his criticism of waste in Iraq, will convene a
hearing next week about fraud and corruption
there. L Paul Bremer, former head of the CPA, has
been asked to testify. Stuart Bowen and Timothy
Carney, coordinators for Iraqi Transitional
Assistance, are also expected to appear.
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