Millions in Iraq aid wasted
31/01/2007
Washington - Tens of millions of dollars have been wasted in Iraq reconstruction aid - some of it on an Olympic-size swimming pool ordered up by Iraqi officials for a police academy that has yet to be used.
The quarterly audit by Stuart Bowen jnr, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the latest to paint a grim picture of waste, fraud and frustration in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has cost taxpayers more than $300bn and left the region near civil war.
"The security situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors and threatening the overall reconstruction effort," according to the 579-page report, which was being released on Wednesday.
Calling Iraq's sectarian violence the greatest challenge, Bowen said in a telephone interview that billions in US aid spent on strengthening security has had limited effect.
He said reconstruction now will fall largely on Iraqis to manage - and they're nowhere ready for the task.
The state department said in the report that it was working to improve controls.
Bowen, whose office was nearly eliminated last month by administration-friendly Republicans in congress, called spending waste in Iraq a continuing problem.
Corruption is high among Iraqi officials, while US contract management remains somewhat weak.
Auditors had "significant concern" about the way ahead, partly because of the Iraqi government's bad track record on budgeting for such projects, the report said.
It said the Iraqi government had "billions of budgeted dollars (that) remained unspent at the end of 2006."
Unemployment remains high, contributing to the insurgency because it sours the population and leaves idle young men to their own devices, according to the report.
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