Report of 'Special Inspector General' Stuart Bowen-A Thorn In NEO-CONS Corruption-And One Of Their Own, so they thought!
US govt, contractors unprepared for Iraq violence; `Millions of US cash missing in Iraq'
WASHINGTON (AFP): A special auditor tracking billions of dollars spent by the United States to rebuild Iraq said Thursday he has found millions of dollars worth of fraud by US officials and companies. Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said the Justice Department had launched a criminal investigation into the fraud. Giving details of his latest report, which is to be released on Saturday, Bowen told
National Public Radio (NPR) that US-backed reconstruction projects in Iraq are speeding ahead. "The reconstruction for Iraq is peaking, 1,000 projects are completed and 1,000 more are ongoing," he said while highlighting the need to monitor the $23 billion that the United States has allocated for new infrastructure and security.
Where oh where has all the monies gone! One of the many questions that scream to be answered, and must be!
His previous reports have already highlighted huge sums of missing money. Bowen said his latest report looked at four water projects where "the results are all over the map". He also told how seven million dollars intended for works such as a police station and a library in the troubled Hilla region south of Baghdad had disappeared. The money came from the Development Fund for Iraq, receipts from oil sales that the US-run former Coalition Provisional Authority used for development projects. "There was no accountability, no records," Bowen said. "Unfortunately there were possible fraudulent activities occurring."
Surprise
US government agencies and construction contractors were taken by surprise by the Iraq insurgency and have been forced to spend over 760 million dollars on security, an official audit said Thursday. The report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a non-partisan investigative body reporting to Congress, found that civilian arms of the US government and firms involved in reconstruction had expected "benign" conditions after the 2003 war.
The US military in Iraq is tasked with establishing a secure environment, allowing relief and construction efforts and training Iraqi armed forces. However, the security situation is so bad that in some cases reconstruction was put on hold to meet spiralling security bills. In March 2005, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) cancelled two power generating projects worth 15 million dollars to pay for security at a third plant in southern Baghdad, the report said. According to Pentagon figures, there are around 60 private security operators in Iraq, with 25,000 employees. The GAO said that so far 200 contractors had been killed.
Things are going so well in Iraq, what happened to the Radio Shills, haven't heard of any Wonderful Reporting of Conditions, although I don't tune them in!!!!
Investigator blasts reconstruction oversight
Inspector general draws harsh critics
By Yochi J. Dreazen
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
July 31, 2005
During a routine audit last summer of an American office in charge of doling out reconstruction funding in Hillah, Iraq, U.S. government investigators made a series of startling discoveries:
The office had paid a contractor twice for the same work.
A U.S. official was allowed to handle millions of dollars in cash weeks after he was fired for incompetence.
Of the $119.9 million allocated for regional projects, $89.4 million was disbursed without contracts or other documentation.
An additional $7.2 million couldn't be found at all.
To many officials in Baghdad and Washington, the only thing more surprising than the problems was the identity of the man who had uncovered them: Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
Bowen is a Texas lawyer who parlayed a job on George W. Bush's first gubernatorial campaign into senior posts in Austin and Washington. He began the Iraq war lobbying for an American contractor seeking tens of millions of dollars in reconstruction work.
In October, California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman singled him out in a report on "The Politicization of Inspectors General" in the Bush administration. The report suggested that such auditors wouldn't be "independent and objective."
Instead, Bowen has become one of the most prominent and credible critics of how the administration has handled the occupation of Iraq. In a series of blistering public reports, he has detailed systemic management failings, lax or nonexistent oversight, and apparent fraud and embezzlement on the part of the U.S. officials charged with administering the rebuilding efforts.
Below is not about Reconstruction but a good report that was aired on NPR, the other day. It shows these Oh So Powerful only know how to Start Human on Human Destruction but Still haven't a Clue as to the Nature of Wars!
They don't understand that others are 'Patriotic' about their own countries, and will fight Occupation of same!
They don't understand that others in the region will also come out to help Rid their Neighbor of that Occupation!
They don't understand that in todays World the fight will be taken Outside of the Conflict Theater endangering the least expecting, innocents anywhere, to send their message of leave their region!
They don't understand that if there was Popular Support of invasion by the invaded there would be no Insurgency/Guerilla actions, the Populace would Stop it by reporting it or taking it into their own hands!
Examining the Makeup of the Iraqi Insurgency
by Eric Westervelt
Morning Edition, July 29, 2005 · American officials still believe the majority of Iraqi insurgents are Sunni Muslims and former Baathist Party members. But those forces have been joined in recent months by significant numbers of other Sunnis, who've become increasingly opposed to the U.S. presence, and by a smaller but powerful contingent of foreign fighters.