Conservatives foam at the mouth at the thought of their tax dollars being "wasted" on poor people, welfare, health insurance for children, etc. But what about BILLIONS of their tax dollars going missing and unaccounted for in Iraq?
Checks being made out to US Officials instead of suppliers. Payments made with no goods or services provided. Payments made but no contracts or proof of anything occurring. etc.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/iraq_funds_audit U.S. and Iraqi officials doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in oil proceeds and other moneys for Iraqi projects earlier this year, but there was little effort to monitor or justify the expenditures, according to an audit released Thursday. Files that could explain many of the payments are missing or nonexistent, and contracting rules were ignored, according to auditors working for an agency created by the United Nations (news - web sites).
"The Bush Administration cannot account for how billions of dollars of Iraqi oil proceeds were spent," Waxman said. "The mismanagement, lack of transparency, and potential corruption will seriously undermine our efforts in Iraq. A thorough congressional investigation is urgently needed."
In the CPA programs, "We found 37 cases where contracting files could not be located," the auditors said. The cost of the contracts: $185 million. In another 52 cases, there was no record of the goods received for $87.9 million in expenditures.
Other questions were raised about funds provided by the U.S.-run governing authority to Kurdish officials in northern Iraq. In one instance, auditors were given a deposit slip that showed the transfer of $1.4 billion to a Kurdish bank. Auditors said they were denied access to accounting records and were unable to verify how-or if-the money was spent.
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