An article by a retired army colonel asking about the missing....

[whistle]

...$8.8 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds


The Patriot-News
Friday, August 6, 2003
Harrisburg, Pa.

DAVID HACKWORTH
$8.8 BILLION IS MISSING IN IRAQ FUNDS

In Iraq, $8.8 billion is MIA. Serious dough
even for the big spenders in Washington, D.C.
A pal in Iraq slipped me a draft Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA) Inspector General
(IG) report dated July 12, 2004, that blisters
the CPA for giving the missing billions to
Iraqi ministries without appropriate controls.
The IG report concludes:
"The CPA did not provide adequate stewardship
of over $8.8 billion in DFI
(Development Fund for Iraq)
funds provided to Iraqi Ministries through
the national budget process.
Specifically, the CPA did not establish
and implement adequate managerial, financial,
and contractual controls over the funds to
ensure they were used in a transparent manner."
Offshore bankers must be burning the
midnight oil these days with all the new
secret accounts pouring out of Baghdad!
And small wonder that L. Paul Bremer
went -to ground- in June after he turned
the running of Iraq over to the Iraqis,
closed down the CPA and flew home for
an attaboy lunch with President Bush at
the White House.
I'm not suggesting that he's living
high on the hog on some Cayman-type island
in the Caribbean, but I am saying that he
was the guy in charge in Iraq - and when
it came to handling the funds in his trust,
the IG report clearly states that he
"did not exercise adequate fiduciary
responsibility over DFI funds provided
to Iraqi Ministries."
Early in the occupation, one senior
CPA adviser asked for help from Bremer's
legal eagles and was blown off with the
following double talk:
"There are no written guidelines
delineating the senior advisers' role,
responsibilities and authorities.
" The Iraqi ministers were expected to
"assume responsibility for and exercise
authority over all recurring, day-to-day
functions of their Ministries" as Bremer &
Company went about "ncreasingly empowering
the interim Ministers, consistent with
their capabilities."
Their capabilities appear to be well
worth investigating, since my sources
have been telling me for months that
Iraqi payrolls have been heavily padded
with ghost soldiers and ghost guards.
According to the IG, "CPA did not
implement adequate controls to ensure
DFI funds were properly used for
salaries of Iraqi employees."
For example, the CPA paid 74,000
guards even though the actual number
of guards couldn't be validated.
On one site alone, 8,206 guards were
on the payroll, but only 603 warm bodies
could be counted.
Elsewhere, more than $17 million was
allocated to guards and the Iraqi
army without one piece of backup
paper. Pals in Iraq say this has been
standard drill since the birth of
"a very dysfunctional" CPA.
The report cites,
"An improper $120 million disbursement
was made in May 2004 because of
miscommunication between CPA/OMB and
Comptroller's office." In other words,
$120 million went south but was blithely
rationalized as some clerks getting
their wires crossed!
Meanwhile, the armed forces'
PX system (AAFES) is into charging our
GIs in Iraq $9 for a 12-inch pizza. A
similar pizza is $8.99 at a pizzeria
near Greenwich, Conn., where prices
compete with Beverly Hills. The manager
told me that about half of this price
was gross profit. Lt. Col. Debra Pressley
of the AAFES insists the $9 price is "fair
and competitive with commercial outlets,
including locations in Greenwich."
And so it seems to be.
But why?
Don't our soldiers deserve a better deal?
Or is our government reduced to trying
to make up the AWOL bucks on our soldiers'
backs?
The powers that be sure planned to
make a profit by charging $3 per head
for watching movies in Iraq
- at least until we blew the whistle.
But once we broke the story, I got
e-mails and phone calls from generals
and colonels denying that the $3 charge
had been scheduled, even though on
July 3, 2004, the deputy commander in
Balad, Iraq, put out this communication:
"CG (Commanding General) has directed
that we begin charging movie fees beginning
on 7 July 2004 in the amount of $3.00
per show."
The local general now says it wasn't
ever going to happen.
Ditto the AAFES general and her spinner
minions. Like the 9/11 report and the
missing money in Iraq, no one will ever
be held responsible.
Welcome to America 2004, where the
buck is always passed and the grunts
are always dealt the losers' hand.

Eilhys England contributed to this column.
------------------------------------------------------
David Hackworth Is A Retired Army Colonel
Writing On MilitaryAffairs. The Address Of His
Home Web Page Is http:www.hackworth.com.
Send mail to P.O. Box 5210, Greenwich, CT 06831