Commission gets grim report on wartime spending (bush projected 2.4 Billion for Iraq Reconstruction)

[The Straight Story]

Commission gets grim report on wartime spending
By Richard Lardner, Associated Press February 2, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - A new commission examining waste and corruption in wartime contracts got a grim report from government watchdogs who say poor planning, weak oversight and greed combined to soak U.S. taxpayers and undermine American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, says the U.S. has committed nearly $51 billion for a wide array of projects in Iraq --from training the Iraqi army and police to rebuilding the country's oil, electric, justice, health and transportation sectors.

Some of these projects succeeded, Bowen told the Wartime Contracting Commission at its first public hearing Monday, but many did not. Violence in Iraq along with constant friction between U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad were also major factors that undercut progress.

A 456-page study by Bowen's office, "Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience," reviews the problems in an effort the Bush administration initially thought would cost $2.4 billion.

The U.S. government "was neither prepared for nor able to respond quickly to the ever-changing demands" of stabilizing Iraq and then rebuilding it, said Bowen, who has made 21 trips to Iraq since he was appointed in October 2004. "For the last six years we have been on a steep learning curve."

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41944&sid=60