Iraq Auditor Warns of Waste, Fraud In Afghanistan

[Coventina]

Source: Washington Post

After five years of investigations and 250,000 pages of audits, Stuart W. Bowen Jr. wishes he could say that the $50 billion cost of the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq was money accounted for and well spent.

"But that's just not happened," Bowen said.

Instead, the largest single-country relief and reconstruction project in U.S. history -- most of it done by private U.S. contractors -- was full of wasted funds, fraud and a lack of accountability under what Bowen, the congressionally mandated special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, calls an "ad hoc-racy" of lax or nonexistent government planning and supervision.

And despite the Iraq experience, he said, the United States is making many of the same mistakes again in Afghanistan, where U.S. reconstruction expenditures stand at more than $30 billion and counting.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/01/AR2009020102225.html

[Javaman]

1. Really? Honestly? You mean our money, our tax dollars were pissed away??

I find that hard to believe, HARD do believe.

sigh.

so how about that superbowl, huh?

[cpamomfromtexas]

2. Remember the Bush Regime tried to discredit Mr. Bowen

[RamboLiberal]

3. Iraq reconstruction history details waste, failures

Source: CNN

Iraqis in Diyala province sarcastically call it "the whale."

The "skeletal, half-built" shell of a maximum-security prison in Khan Bani Saad "will probably never house an inmate" even though the United States spent $40 million on the now-halted $73 million project.

Marred by "poor security and weak subcontractor performance," the project is among several examples of Iraqi rebuilding problems cited in a just-published history by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Titled "Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience," the report says the massive reconstruction initiative was marked by waste and failures caused by "blinkered and disjointed" pre-war planning -- and was pursued amid deteriorating security.

"Why was an extensive rebuilding plan carried out in a gravely unstable security environment? asked Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, whose oversight jurisdiction covers $50 billion in U.S. funds appropriated by Congress for Iraq.


A new report says a half-built prison in Khan Bani Saad, Iraq, will probably never be used.


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/02/iraq.reconstruction/index.html

[Submariner]

4. Typical Bush project -- left undone for others to clean up his mess

like all Bush's other projects. Total failure.

[laststeamtrain]

5. Waste, fraud in Iraq being repeated in Afghanistan

Source: AP

Waste, fraud in Iraq being repeated in Afghanistan

By RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press Writer 2 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Waste and corruption that marred Iraq's reconstruction will be repeated in Afghanistan unless the U.S. transforms the unwieldy bureaucracy managing tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, government watchdogs warned Monday.

The U.S. has devoted more than $30 billion to rebuilding Afghanistan. Yet despite the hard lessons learned in Iraq, where the U.S. has spent nearly $51 billion on reconstruction, the effort in Afghanistan is headed down the same path, the watchdogs told a new panel investigating wartime contracts.

"Before we go pouring more money in, we really need to know what we're trying to accomplish (in Afghanistan)," said Ginger Cruz, deputy special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. "And at what point do you turn off the spigot so you're not pouring money into a black hole?"

Better cooperation among federal agencies, more flexible contracting rules, constant oversight and experienced acquisition teams are among the changes urged by the officials in order to make sure money isn't wasted and contractors don't cheat.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090202/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/wartime_spending_oversight

[Mari333]

6. end both those goddamned wars and watch the economy turn around. nt