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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: d[-_-]b who wrote (262109)	11/25/2005 6:38:57 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573941

I'm talking about feeding the troops, which the military could do much cheaper than the private sector. Some things ARE cheaper when provided by the government. Medicare, which has a 2% overhead cost, is the prime example. Of course the proprietary software and hardware the military uses will require contractors to maintain. There's nothing proprietary about cooking, cleaning, truck driving and other such mundane services. Private companies have to make a profit, and often take advantage of opportuinites to steal public funds. When caught, they call it an "overcharge"! The military, which has already become dependent, has no recourse but to suck it up and keep paying. If the Repugnicans weren't in charge, the Dickster's old company would have 10 special counsels investigating it. Which may come to pass in 2006. We're missing 8.8 BILLION dollars in Iraq that can't be accounted for! The Repugnicans don't seem to care - it's just another scandal involving their cronys to be avoided. --------------------------------------------------------------- Audit shows $8.8 billion in Iraq funds missing Coalition official cites body for lax ‘stewardship’ Reuters Updated: 6:06 p.m. ET Aug. 19, 2004 WASHINGTON - At least $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds that was given to Iraqi ministries by the former U.S.-led authority there cannot be accounted for, according to a draft U.S. audit set for release soon. The audit by the Coalition Provisional Authority’s own inspector general blasts the CPA for “not providing adequate stewardship” of at least $8.8 billion from the Development Fund for Iraq that was given to Iraqi ministries. The audit was first reported on a Web site earlier this month by David Hackworth, a journalist and retired colonel. A U.S. official confirmed that the contents of the leaked audit cited by Hackworth were accurate. The development fund is made up of proceeds from Iraqi oil sales, frozen assets from foreign governments and surplus from the U.N. oil for food program. Its handling has already come under fire in a U.N.-mandated audit released last month. Ghost workers Among the draft audit’s findings were that payrolls in Iraqi ministries under the control of the Coalition Provisional Authority were padded with thousands of ghost employees. In one example, the audit said the CPA paid for 74,000 guards even though the actual number could not be validated. In another, 8,206 guards were listed on a payroll but only 603 people doing the work could be counted. Three Democratic senators — Ron Wyden of Oregon, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota — demanded an explanation from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the use of the funds by the CPA, which handed over authority to the Iraqis in June. “The CPA apparently transferred this staggering sum of money with no written rules or guidelines for ensuring adequate managerial, financial or contractual controls over the funds,” said the letter sent by the senators on Thursday. ‘Serious questions’ “Such enormous discrepancies raise very serious questions about potential fraud, waste and abuse,” said the senators. A spokesman for the CPA inspector general’s office confirmed “field work” had been completed on the audit but declined to give specifics. He said auditors were awaiting comment from the Pentagon before releasing the final report, probably later this month. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions. An international audit report released last month that was requested by a U.N.-mandated monitoring body chided the CPA for oversight of spending of Iraq’s oil revenue. Halliburton also benefited While the International Advisory and Monitoring Board said the audit found no evidence of fraud in spending by the CPA after the U.S. invasion in March 2003, it said oversight was insufficient to ensure money was used for its intended purposes. One of the main benefactors of the Iraq funds was the Texas-based firm Halliburton, which was paid more than $1 billion out of those funds to bring in fuel for Iraqi civilians. The monitoring board said despite repeated requests it had not been given access to U.S. audits of contracts held by Halliburton, which was once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, and other firms that used the development funds. Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. © 2005 MSNBC.com URL: msnbc.msn.com