Millions of US funds wasted in Iraq

timesonline
Millions of dollars intended for the rebuilding of Iraq have been squandered amid continuing incompetence, corruption and a deteriorating security situation, American government auditors have revealed.

A damning report by Stuart Bowen, the US special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, described a string of misguided and expensive initiatives that have failed to deliver any real benefit for the country, among them the construction of a police camp in Baghdad that cost $43.8 million (£22.4 million) but has never been used.

The facility, built near Adnan Palace by the US contractor, DynCorp International, was even extended by the Iraqi Interior Ministry — to the tune of an Olympic-size swimming pool and $4.2 million (£2.1 million) of improvements — without proper American approval.

Today's report also included revelations that $36 million (£18 million) was spent by US officials on armoured vehicles, body armour and communications equipment that cannot be accounted for because invoices were vague and there is no back-up documentation.

Mr Bowen's study, which comes as President Bush is preparing to ask Congress to approve a further $1.2 billion (£612 million) in aid for Iraq, also asks serious questions of the Iraqi Government's ability to manage funds given to it. At the end of 2006, Iraqi officials had failed to spend billions of dollars specifically budgeted for capital projects since 2003, the report said.

Iraqi prisons and police forces have also struggled to function amid the serious sectarian violence that has cost tens of thousands of lives in the country in the last year, the audit said, observing that the US has "spent billions in this area, with limited success to date".

"The security situation continues to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors, and threatening the overall reconstruction effort," the 579-page report adds.

Speaking from Iraq today Stephen Farrell, The Times' Middle East Correspondent, said Iraqi people would not be in the slightest bit surprised by the findings.

"Certainly among Iraqis there is — and has been almost from day one since the US-led invasion — a perception that reconstruction was badly handled and inadequately financed, and what money did pour into the country disappeared at an alarming rate, both by corruption among Iraqis, or due to the US contractors who were responsible for managing it," he told the Times Online.

"We started to hear claims of corruption really early on in this war, and that has never stopped.

"Whatever they thought about the necessity for the war to remove Saddam Hussein, you won't find a single Iraqi who thinks that the reconstruction has been well-handled."

Mr Bowen’s office is responsible for overseeing the use, and potential misuse, of US funds for Iraq’s reconstruction. Today's audit is the latest of his quarterly reports to the US Congress on how the cash is being spent.