Audits find flaws in U.S. handling of Iraq funds
---Flaws...UunnnHhnn..Thats a good word for it I suppose...---
The United States has carelessly, and possibly fraudulently, handled some Iraqi money used for reconstruction, according to U.S. audits released on Wednesday which found nearly $100 million in cash unaccounted for in one area of Iraq alone.
Two audits by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found flaws in how U.S. government and military officials ran contracts paid for by the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) -- Iraqi money entrusted to the United States after the 2003 invasion.
Incompetence included contractors sometimes paid twice, files misplaced, cash payments unaccounted for and scant evidence that goods and services were provided.
"There was no assurance that fraud, waste and abuse did not occur in the management and administration of contracts funded by DFI," said the auditors.
The development fund is made up of proceeds from Iraqi oil sales, frozen assets from foreign governments and surplus from the U.N. Oil for Food program. Handling of the fund has already come under fire by previous U.S. as well as U.N. mandated audits.
The United States has also criticized the United Nations over its administration of the separate Oil for Food program.
An audit released by the Iraq reconstruction inspector in January concluded the U.S. had not properly safeguarded about $8.8 billion of Iraq's own money in the development fund.
Of concern in the new audits was poor oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars of cash used to pay contractors. With Iraq's banking system in tatters, cash is a common form of payment.
In one audit looking at about $119.9 million in DFI cash paid out in south-central Iraq, auditors found deficiencies "of such magnitude as to require prompt attention." The account manager could not properly account for over $96.6 million in cash. More....
The United States has carelessly, and possibly fraudulently, handled some Iraqi money used for reconstruction, according to U.S. audits released on Wednesday which found nearly $100 million in cash unaccounted for in one area of Iraq alone.
Two audits by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found flaws in how U.S. government and military officials ran contracts paid for by the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) -- Iraqi money entrusted to the United States after the 2003 invasion.
Incompetence included contractors sometimes paid twice, files misplaced, cash payments unaccounted for and scant evidence that goods and services were provided.
"There was no assurance that fraud, waste and abuse did not occur in the management and administration of contracts funded by DFI," said the auditors.
The development fund is made up of proceeds from Iraqi oil sales, frozen assets from foreign governments and surplus from the U.N. Oil for Food program. Handling of the fund has already come under fire by previous U.S. as well as U.N. mandated audits.
The United States has also criticized the United Nations over its administration of the separate Oil for Food program.
An audit released by the Iraq reconstruction inspector in January concluded the U.S. had not properly safeguarded about $8.8 billion of Iraq's own money in the development fund.
Of concern in the new audits was poor oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars of cash used to pay contractors. With Iraq's banking system in tatters, cash is a common form of payment.
In one audit looking at about $119.9 million in DFI cash paid out in south-central Iraq, auditors found deficiencies "of such magnitude as to require prompt attention." The account manager could not properly account for over $96.6 million in cash. More....
posted by Christy at 12:57 PM
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