NBC: How US lost billions in Wild West gamble to rebuild Iraq
- From: "Grand Abbot Tom Poynton" <tom.poynton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 26 Jan 2006 10:02:28 -0800
Surprise, surprise...
Who was it who said that war is a racket?
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2010424,00.html
The Times, January 26, 2006
How US lost billions in Wild West gamble to rebuild Iraq
>>From Tim Reid in Washington
AN AUDIT of US reconstruction spending in Iraq has uncovered
spectacular misuse of tens of millions of dollars in cash, including
bundles of money stashed in filing cabinets, a US soldier who gambled
away thousands and stacks of newly minted notes distributed without
receipts.
The audit, released yesterday by the US Special Inspector General for
Iraq Reconstruction, describes a country in the months after the
overthrow of Saddam Hussein awash with dollars, and a Wild West
atmosphere where even multimillion-dollar contracts were paid for in
cash.
The findings come after a report last year by the inspector general
which stated that nearly $9 billion (£5 billion) of Iraq's oil
revenue disbursed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA),
which governed Iraq until mid-2004, cannot be accounted for.
The huge sums in cash were paid out with little or no supervision, and
often without any paperwork, yesterday's audit found. The report
found problems with nearly 2,000 contracts worth $88.1 million.
In one case, a US soldier gambled away more than $40,000 while
accompanying the Iraqi Olympic boxing team to the Philippines. In
others, "one contracting officer kept approximately $2 million in
cash in a safe in his office bathroom", the report says, "while a
paying agent kept approximately $678,000 in cash in an unlocked
footlocker".
The lack of supervision had tragic consequences. A contract for
$662,800 to refurbish the Hilla General Hospital was paid in full by a
US official, even though the work was not finished. Instead of
replacing a central lift, as demanded in the contract, workers only
tinkered with the existing mechanism. Three months later the lift
crashed, killing three Iraqis.
Cash was stolen during insurgent raids but never reported, the audit
found. In another case, a contractor was paid $108,140 to refurbish
completely the Hilla Olympic swimming pool. The contractor simply
polished some of the pumps and piping to make it look as if new
hardware had been installed. The pool has never reopened.
More than 160 vehicles worth about $3.3 million could not be traced
because there was no proper documentation. Another project, a $473,000
contract to install an internet service in Ramadi, was cancelled
because officials could not oversee it. But the contractor had already
been paid.
A separate congressional inquiry has uncovered the sums of cash
airlifted into Iraq after the invasion. Desperate for money, and with
no banking system to receive wire transfers, the CPA, led by Paul
Bremer, received UN approval to fund reconstruction with $37 billion of
seized Iraqi oil proceeds, most of it held in the US Federal Reserve in
New York.
Soon, large quantities of cash began arriving in Baghdad, shipped in on
C17 cargo planes. The cash arrived on pallets loaded with
shrink-wrapped bundles of crisp $100 bills. The parcels, which soon
became known as "bricks", were handed out "like candy", one
Democrat congressman said.
In all, $12 billion in cash, weighing 363 tonnes, was flown into Iraq.
On December 12, 2003, one single flight to Iraq contained $1.5 billion
in cash, the largest single Federal Reserve payout in US history,
according to Henry Waxman, the Democrat congressman who is investigated
the funding.
The US has so far spent $226 billion on the Iraq war. The CPA was
allocated $38 billion in US and Iraqi funds, and spent $19.7 billion of
UN-administered Iraqi oil money.
FRITTERED AWAY
$108,140 paid to contractor to refurbish Olympic swimming pool in
Hilla. Work never done
$662,800 paid to repair Hilla hospital. Much of work never done,
including renewing central lift. Three people later died when lift
crashed
$40,000 gambled away by US soldier assigned as assistant to Iraqi
Olympic boxing team on trip to Philippines
$2 million locked in a the bathroom safe of a US official
$678,000 stashed away in an unlocked foot locker
$473,000 paid for internet installation in Ramadi. Work never done
.
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