Investigators Find Bush Administration Can't Account For At Least $100 Million In Iraq Oil And Reconstruction Funds

by Steve

The next time you hear our opponents on the right complain about Saddam, the UN, and the lack of accountability with the Oil for Food program, remember that the Bush Administration seems to be no better with its handling of Iraq reconstruction monies.

The reconstruction funds that were examined came from seized assets of the former regime of Saddam Hussein and from Iraqi oil revenue, not from U.S. taxpayer money.

Auditors were struck by a series of apparent accounting errors in the Rapid Regional Response Program, an obscure rebuilding effort operated from the Hillah office. The program was designed to jump-start reconstruction in south-central Iraq by allowing U.S. officials to quickly issue contracts worth up to $200,000 each.

To pay for contract work in Iraq's cash-based economy, the U.S. appointed military personnel and civilians to physically hand out money to Iraqis. The U.S. officials were then supposed to reconcile those payments with receipts. But the auditors found that such receipts were lacking or incomplete for $96.6 million of $119.9 million in payments.

Two other audits, also released Wednesday, criticize the overall U.S. handling of Iraqi and U.S. funds.

For contracts funded with Iraqi money, contract officers could not show that services had been delivered in more than half of 300 contracts valued at $332.9 million.

For contracts funded with $18.4 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds, officers could not even find about a quarter of 48 contracts that had been selected for review. Other contracts were found stuffed in drawers or misfiled.

And yes, the reconstruction effort reported to Rummy and was overseen by our current Secretary of State.