U.S. inspector general calls for halt in funding $26 million Iraqi academy

[unhappycamper]

U.S. inspector general calls for halt in funding $26 million Iraqi academy
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 25, 2011; 8:43 PM

A top U.S. oversight office has recommended that the United States halt further funding for a $26 million education academy for senior Iraqi security officials after discovering that the Iraqi government had never agreed to operate or maintain the facility.

The United States has spent more than $13 million on the project.

"At this point, it is unclear if the GOI (Government of Iraq) will budget for the operations and maintenance of the IIA (Iraqi International Academy) upon completion," said Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, in a report sent to the Central Command's Gen. James N. Mattis and released Tuesday. "Without such an agreement, U.S. funds spent on construction are at risk of being wasted, as are the funds planned to equip and furnish the facility," Bowen added.

Bowen said in the report that his organization has repeatedly noted the necessity of getting Iraq to "buy-in as an essential element to a project's long-term success." He recalled as an example that in the $35.5 million project to create an economic zone at Baghdad International Airport, 24 projects costing about $16 million were not being maintained or used.

The inspector general's report found that the U.S. military training mission, which developed the project, never raised with the Iraqi government its responsibility to operate the facility. And although Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in 2009 authorized his defense ministry to pay money to move families out of the buildings that were to become the academy, his government had never agreed to take over its operation

[LiberalFighter]

1. Who got the bid for the project?