<snip> In a press release from the British charity Christian Aid yesterday, the agency raised its concerns over Iraq’s missing billions from the government funds. It is suspected that there is widespread corruption in post-war Iraq, according to an official US audit.
The war-torn country has been troubled by social and political instability following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. While the humanitarian situation in Iraq remains critical and there are plenty of immediate needs on which money from international donors can be spent, at least $4 billion of Iraqi money earmarked for reconstruction has gone missing, according to a Christian Aid report released in October 2003 entitled, "Iraq: the Mission Billions". In June 2004, Christian Aid even reported that $13 billion has fallen into a financial black hole.
In a latest report to the US Congress, Gen Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction accused the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) for failing to provide proper tracking of projects paid for with Iraq’s own funds, while it only focused on monitoring the spending of US taxpayers' money in Iraq carefully. <snip>
While billions of Iraq’s money is missing, Christian Aid suspected that the fund was being creamed off for the benefit of US companies. In turn this was adding to the frustration and resentment among some Iraqis, potentially fuelling violence, said the report. <snip>
http://www.christiantoday.com/news/soc/175.htm