General

Iraqi funds mismanaged

New audit says Pentagon mismanaged $9.1 billion

An audit by the U.S. Department of Defense found that the $9.1 billion fund supposed to be used by American military agencies for reconstruction projects in Iraq was not documented responsibly, including $2.6 billion that are unaccounted for because of poor record-keeping. The audit, conducted by the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, also found that U.S. officials didn’t put $8.7 billion into bank accounts, leaving funds “vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss,” according to the report. “Weak oversight is directly correlated to increased numbers of cases of theft and abuse, with the majority of convictions to date being traceable to the 2003-2004 time-frame where accounting practices were weakest,” said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, in an e-mail to the Washington Post. The report, to be released next Tuesday, is the latest in a series of investigations which have faulted the U.S. government for mismanaging the Iraq war.

Washington Post

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