WP: Corruption Cited in Iraq's Oil Industry

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/16/AR2006071600774.html

Corruption Cited in Iraq's Oil Industry

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 17, 2006; Page A12

U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker told Congress last week that "massive corruption" and "a lot of theft going on" in Iraq's government-controlled oil industry is hampering the country's ability to govern itself.

"It took me about, you know, a second and a half to realize that, obviously, there was massive corruption going on, because the numbers just didn't add up," Walker said, referring to a trip he took to Iraq this year in which he was shown figures on oil production and revenue.

Walker, who heads the Government Accountability Office, made his remarks at a House Government Reform subcommittee meeting last Tuesday called to examine implementation of the Bush administration's 2005 "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq." He said one of the failures of the U.S. program was related to the prewar assumption that Iraq would be able to pay for its reconstruction "in large part through oil revenues."

He said about 10 percent of Iraq's refined fuels and 30 percent of its imported fuels are being stolen, in part because the subsidized Iraqi price of gasoline, about 44 cents a gallon, is less than half the regional price of 90 cents a gallon. "That provides a tremendous incentive to be able to steal these fuels and be able to sell them for whatever purposes, corruption or otherwise," Walker said.

[rubberducky]

1. AAAAAAAAAANNNNNNDDDDDDD?????

We are surprised???:rofl:

[barb162]

8. Yeah, for how many decades?

I doubt if that oil indusry will ever be well-run beside the fact that each side tries to blow up the other's oil infrastructure, what's left of it.

[jazzjunkysue]

2. Breaking: Water IS wet!

The sky is blue.

Film at 11.

[Tellurian]

13. ...

[Gloria]

3. Gee, I had stories about this months ago in the WMW

from Iraqi sources.

Maybe I should become the "mainstream" media....

[tanyev]

4. I'll be. They did learn a lot from the Bush administration.

[samsingh]

5. no surprise there

[Up2Late]

6. Can't say this suprises me, but these numbers are incredable!

...He said the reconstruction program, which involved the Defense Department, the State Department and the Agency for International Development, was, at $21.9 billion, :argh:"the largest . . . since the Marshall Plan." He said that prewar assumptions that "there would be a permissive security environment that would allow reconstruction to go forward" turned out to be wrong along with the estimate "that the Iraqi government would make important contributions to the reconstruction effort."

As a result, Jeffrey said, "we shifted billions of dollars from longer-term infrastructure into shorter-term projects -- primarily security, but also democracy programs."

(clip)

Walker's GAO report criticized the administration's failure to identify "current and future costs" or "the sources of funding needed to achieve U.S. political security and economic objectives in Iraq."

The report concludes that neither the Defense Department nor Congress "can reliably determine the costs of the war, nor do they have details on how appropriated funds are being spent or historical data useful in considering future funding needs." He said it costs about $1.5 billion a week for U.S. military operations, reconstruction and support for Iraqi forces....

(more at link) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/16/AR2006071600774.html?nav=rss_world>:kick:

[William Seger]

7. Isn't Chalabi the oil minister now?

:grr: :banghead:

[ShockediSay]

9. And the US Oil Industry is Clean?

?????????????????????/

[lovuian]

10. Oil stealing is the easiest way to steal and make big money

though Iraq oil is quite contaminated so not so easy to refine...

[gratuitous]

11. The thieves aren't impressed with the refiners' problems

When you swipe a barrel of oil and sell it for $30 or $60, you're not too worried if the refiner's going to have trouble with its contamination. You pocket your money and steal another barrel.

And when you're stealing a hundred thousand barrels each day, you worry even less.

But I'm sure that Congress, so worried about the thousands wasted on Katrina relief, will be on this theft of billions like white on rice, right?

[Tellurian]

12. So, does this mean-

If the Iraqi oil makes it to the states, Americans could possibly be "paying" for
oil contaminated with radiation which when consumed will spew radioactive fumes into their homes?

[Tellurian]

14. kick~

:kick: