Friday, May 23, 2008

US spending in Iraq ignored rules - BBC News


An audited account of some $8bn (£4bn) paid to United States and Iraki contractors have establish that almost every payment failed to follow with United States laws aimed at preventing fraud.


In one instance, $11m was paid to a United States company without any record of what commodity or services were provided, the United States defense mechanism section audited account said.


US disbursement of another $1.8bn in seized Iraki assets was also poorly handled.


The findings, covering the time period from 2001 to 2006, will fuel anti-war Democrats' claims of mismanagement.


They impeach the Shrub disposal of relying too heavily on contractors to run the Republic Of Iraq warfare and paying too small attending to jobs of corruptness and fraud.


'Very wrong'


The reappraisal by the defense mechanism department's inspector full general estimations that the United States Army made more than than 180,000 commercial payments from alkalis in Iraq, Arab Republic Of Egypt and Kuwait City from 2001 to 2006.


The $8bn disbursement of United States taxpayers' money involved purchases of commodity and services ranging from bottled water, mattresses and nutrient to motortrucks and phones.

Without a receiving study and invoice, we don't cognize what we paid for

Virgin Mary UgonePentagon auditor


In some cases, contracts worth billions of dollars were paid for in hard cash with small or no certification to demo what was delivered.


In one example, research workers establish a transcript of a $5.6m check paid by the United States Treasury to an Iraki contractor, but no records to demo what had been purchased.


"Payments that are not properly supported make not supply the necessary self-assurance that finances were used as intended," the inspector full general concluded.


The Pentagon auditors' reappraisal was released at a hearing of the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Oversight and Government reform on Wednesday.


Democratic commission president Henry Waxman said: "There is something very incorrect when our hurt military personnel have got to fill up out word forms in triplicate for repast money while millions of dollars are handed out in Republic Of Iraq with no accountability."


Mary Ugone, the Pentagon's deputy sheriff inspector full general for auditing, told the committee: "Without a receiving study and invoice, we don't cognize what we paid for."


Transparency


The hearing came on the same twenty-four hours as statute law introduced by Mister Waxman with the purpose of strengthening anti-fraud measures and boosting transparence was passed by the House.


The reappraisal was seen as important because, unlike former critical audited accounts of United States disbursement in Iraq, it was the first clip the Pentagon itself had revealed mismanagement on such as a scale.


In April, a separate audited account of US-funded reconstruction undertakings for Republic Of Iraq establish that billions of dollars had been wasted because 100s of strategies were never completed.


Last year, congressional research workers said as much as $10bn (£5bn) charged by United States contractors for Republic Of Iraq Reconstruction had been questionable.

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