Post by Islamic Revival on Feb 1, 2005 5:33:03 GMT -5
Editorial: Yet Another Scandal
1 February 2005
www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=58343&d=1&m=2&y=2005
War brings chaos in its wake in which the most extraordinary items can go missing. No one ever found out what happened to the brand new tanks and equipment for an entire US armored division, which went missing when supposed to be shipped to Italy in 1943. Now an even more serious loss has occurred in the fog of conflict. Almost $9 billion of Iraqi oil revenues handled by the US-led Coalition Authority in Baghdad have gone apparently missing. Iraqis will rightly want to know what has happened to this immense sum slated for the rebuilding and reconstruction of their country.
A story broken yesterday by the BBC reveals that US government auditors have uncovered an astonishing series of incidents in which vast amounts of cash were bundled around the country with minimal security and supervision. On one hardly credible occasion, it is alleged that no less than $1.4 billion in cash, weighing some 14 tons, was transported in three helicopters to a bank in Iraq but that no deposit receipt was obtained. In another case, the key to a safe holding millions of dollars in cash was kept in an open back pack in the office. Even if these astonishingly lax procedures did not result in the theft of significant sums of money, the US auditors have come up with clear evidence that contractors involved in rebuilding projects submitted false invoices for fictitious work and that some coalition officials were demanding bribes of up to $300,000 in cash to award contracts.
These appalling examples of dishonesty and carelessness bordering on the criminal impugn the reputation of the many coalition and Iraqi officials. Unfortunately the figures are just so vast and the sloppiness so breath-taking that they cannot simply be written off as just one of those things. This however seems to be the attitude of former coalition head Paul Bremer who has claimed lamely that the auditors failed to understand the conditions in which his authority was operating. Mr. Bremer and his top officials are likely to face some very tough questions. In the end however the way in which the chaos was exploited by cheats and thieves comes down again to the absolute paucity of post-conflict planning by the US. It would seem that no systems were organized in advance of the invasion, even though it was known that once the Saddam regime was ousted, onerous organizational responsibilities would need to be shouldered by the occupation authorities.
If Washington maintains that they had in fact made plans, they must explain why those plans clearly worked so badly.
The Bush administration was quick to be highly critical of the UN-run oil for food program, from which, after it was established in 1996 the Saddam regime creamed off some $21 billion while UN officials and corrupt businessmen pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and phony invoices. Now the US stands itself accused of much the same dishonesty and maladministration. The proper course of action will be to pursue the latest allegations with vigor and speed.
This cannot be a scandal that will be painted out by long delay and weasel words. The money that has apparently gone missing belongs to the people of Iraq and at some point, when the full facts have been discovered, it must be repaid to them.
1 February 2005
www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=58343&d=1&m=2&y=2005
War brings chaos in its wake in which the most extraordinary items can go missing. No one ever found out what happened to the brand new tanks and equipment for an entire US armored division, which went missing when supposed to be shipped to Italy in 1943. Now an even more serious loss has occurred in the fog of conflict. Almost $9 billion of Iraqi oil revenues handled by the US-led Coalition Authority in Baghdad have gone apparently missing. Iraqis will rightly want to know what has happened to this immense sum slated for the rebuilding and reconstruction of their country.
A story broken yesterday by the BBC reveals that US government auditors have uncovered an astonishing series of incidents in which vast amounts of cash were bundled around the country with minimal security and supervision. On one hardly credible occasion, it is alleged that no less than $1.4 billion in cash, weighing some 14 tons, was transported in three helicopters to a bank in Iraq but that no deposit receipt was obtained. In another case, the key to a safe holding millions of dollars in cash was kept in an open back pack in the office. Even if these astonishingly lax procedures did not result in the theft of significant sums of money, the US auditors have come up with clear evidence that contractors involved in rebuilding projects submitted false invoices for fictitious work and that some coalition officials were demanding bribes of up to $300,000 in cash to award contracts.
These appalling examples of dishonesty and carelessness bordering on the criminal impugn the reputation of the many coalition and Iraqi officials. Unfortunately the figures are just so vast and the sloppiness so breath-taking that they cannot simply be written off as just one of those things. This however seems to be the attitude of former coalition head Paul Bremer who has claimed lamely that the auditors failed to understand the conditions in which his authority was operating. Mr. Bremer and his top officials are likely to face some very tough questions. In the end however the way in which the chaos was exploited by cheats and thieves comes down again to the absolute paucity of post-conflict planning by the US. It would seem that no systems were organized in advance of the invasion, even though it was known that once the Saddam regime was ousted, onerous organizational responsibilities would need to be shouldered by the occupation authorities.
If Washington maintains that they had in fact made plans, they must explain why those plans clearly worked so badly.
The Bush administration was quick to be highly critical of the UN-run oil for food program, from which, after it was established in 1996 the Saddam regime creamed off some $21 billion while UN officials and corrupt businessmen pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and phony invoices. Now the US stands itself accused of much the same dishonesty and maladministration. The proper course of action will be to pursue the latest allegations with vigor and speed.
This cannot be a scandal that will be painted out by long delay and weasel words. The money that has apparently gone missing belongs to the people of Iraq and at some point, when the full facts have been discovered, it must be repaid to them.