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May 23rd,
2008 - 15 Billion Dollars in US Iraq Spending Unaccounted for: Reports News article by Agence France
Presse |
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15 Billion Dollars
in US Iraq Spending Unaccounted for: Reports By Agence France Presse May 23, 2008 Washington - The Pentagon
cannot account for nearly 15 billion dollars in payments for goods and
services in Iraq, according to an internal audit which members of Congress
blasted Friday as a "shocking" accountability failure. Of 8.2 billion dollars in US
taxpayer-funded defense contracts reviewed by the defense department's
inspector general, the Pentagon could not properly account for more than 7.7
billion dollars. The lack of accountability
of the funds, intended for purchases of weapons, vehicles, construction
equipment and security services, amounted to a 95 percent failure rate in
basic accounting standards, according to the report. "We estimated that the
army made 1.4 billion dollars in commercial payments that lacked the minimum
documentation for a valid payment, such as properly prepared receiving
reports, invoices, and certified vouchers," deputy inspector general
Mary Ugone told a Congressional committee Thursday. "We also estimated that
the army made an additional 6.3 billion dollars of commercial payments that
met the 27 criteria for payments but did not comply with other statutory and
regulatory requirements." The Pentagon also was found
to have given away another 1.8 billion in Iraqi assets "with absolutely
no accountability," said Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the House
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Investigators examined
53 payment vouchers and couldn't find even one that adequately explained
where the money went." Another five billion dollars
spent on supporting the Iraqi security forces could not be properly traced,
according to a November 2007 inspector general report. "Taken together, the
inspector general found that the defense department did not properly account
for almost 15 billion dollars," Waxman said. The disclosures sparked
outrage among legislators and concern that US taxpayers are deeply vulnerable
to massive waste and fraud in the Pentagon's contracting system. "The report has new
shocking details of billions of dollars of American taxpayer money
unaccounted for and likely wasted, which should be a wake-up call to Congress
and the (President George W.) Bush administration that the status quo is
unacceptable," Democratic senator and presidential candidate Hillary
Clinton said in a statement. "American taxpayers are
picking up the tab for Iraqi ministries, coalition governments, US and
foreign contractors, Iraqi security forces, and Blackwater and other US
security companies," Waxman said. "In one remarkable
instance, a 320-million-dollar payment in cash was handed over with little
more than a signature in exchange." The Pentagon to date has
been appropriated 492 billion dolllars to support Operation Iraqi Freedom,
according to Ugone. Copyright © 2008 AFP. All
rights reserved. External link: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ieRhHYX-NosV0VEguc06fs15a4Jg Spending On Iraq Poorly
Tracked Audit Faults Accounting for $15 Billion in Work By Dana Hedgpeth Washington Post May 23, 2008 The inspector general for
the Defense Department said yesterday that the Pentagon cannot account for
almost $15 billion worth of goods and services ranging from trucks, bottled
water and mattresses to rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns that were
bought from contractors in the Iraq reconstruction effort. The Pentagon did not have
the proper documentation, including receipts, vouchers, signatures, invoices
or other paperwork, for $7.8 billion that American and Iraqi contractors were
paid for phones, folders, paint, blankets, Nissan trucks, laundry services
and other items, according to a 69-page audit released to the House Committee
on Oversight and Government Reform. An earlier audit by the
inspector general found deficiencies in accounting for $5.2 billion of U.S.
payments to buy weapons, trucks, generators and other equipment for Iraq's
security forces. In addition, the Defense Department spent $1.8 billion of
seized Iraqi assets with "absolutely no accountability," according
to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who chairs the oversight committee. The
Pentagon also kept poor records on $135 million that it paid to its partners
in the multinational military force in Iraq, auditors said. The Army disagreed with some
of the auditors' findings, saying that it is difficult to maintain an
adequate paper trail in a war zone and that it has improved its
record-keeping and accountability efforts. Robert L. Wilkie, assistant
secretary of defense for legislative affairs, declined an invitation to
testify before from Waxman's committee. Of the $7.8 billion in
payments detailed in the audit released yesterday, about $1.4 billion did not
meet the most minimal requirements for documentation, making it highly
possible that waste, fraud or abuse had occurred, according to auditors. In
one case, there is a copy of a $5.6 million check from the U.S. Treasury paid
to an Iraqi contractor but no documents saying what was purchased. In
another, a South Carolina contractor was paid $11 million, according to a
voucher, but auditors said they could not tell what goods or services were
received. "Without a receiving
report and invoice, we don't know what we paid for," said Mary Ugone,
the Defense Department's deputy inspector general for auditing. She said
internal controls and paper trails were inadequate and that the Army's
"finance personnel were not adequately trained" in overseeing the
billions of dollars paid. Auditors referred more than
two dozen vouchers, totaling $35 million, to criminal investigators at the
Pentagon. Waxman said the poorly
documented expenditures of seized Iraqi assets included a $320 million cash
payment for employing 1,000 people that was handed over to the Iraqi Finance
Ministry with "little more than a signature in exchange." "Investigators looked
at 53 payment vouchers and couldn't find even one that adequately explained
where the money went," Waxman said. The money paid to military
coalition partners, including Britain, Poland and South Korea, was intended
to help local reconstruction and humanitarian projects. Auditors said that
none of the files reviewed "contained sufficient supporting
documentation to provide reasonable assurance that these funds were used for
their intended purpose." In one case, the Defense Department made an $8
million payment to Polish forces with minimal documentation, according to the
audit. An audit report issued in
November found that $5.2 billion of U.S. payments to buy weapons, trucks,
generators and other equipment to support Iraqi security forces had major
deficiencies in how items were accounted for, saying that the Defense
Department did not know "what equipment is due in, due out, issued and
on hand." The inspector general found that the Defense Department could
not account for 12,712 of 13,508 weapons, including assault rifles, machine
guns and grenade launchers for Iraqi forces. "When we turned them
over to the Iraqis, they weren't properly accounted for," said Gary
Comerford, a spokesman for the Defense Department's inspector general, saying
serial numbers were not consistently recorded. "The paper trail is not
complete." The November audit also
described how the Pentagon paid $32 million for the construction of an Iraqi
military facility in Anbar province that was never built. Defense Department
officials told staff members of the oversight committee that "this is
embarrassing" because "not a spade of dirt was turned." © 2008 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/22/AR2008052203751.html |