Iraq reconstruction, corruption,waste,inefficiency .. it's official now

Engineering News-Record ENR.Com a McGraw Hill Magazine reports the meeting of the US Senate Foreign Relations committee which provides a stunning indictment of the way US taxpayers money has been wasted and how unsatisfactory the attempts at reconstruction have been. The article is "INTERNATIONAL Security Woes Slow Rebuilding Iraqi Infrastructure, IG Says 2/8/2006 By Bruce Buckley" and can be found here

Special Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen, Jr for Iraq Reconstruction testified to the Senate Foreign Relations committee Feb. 8 subsequent to the court case in which the depth and breadth of venality and corruption was detailed in the charges brought against CPA staffer Robert Stein and his US/Roumanian business friend Harold Bloom.
The committee were so delighted they issued a Press Release.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins, R-Me., and Ranking Member Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., Friday expressed concern about allegations of large kickbacks paid to American officials for the award of contracts in Iraq. The Senators praised the Special Inspector General overseeing Iraq reconstruction for uncovering the alleged corruption.

Collins said: "These allegations of fraudulent use of taxpayer dollars are serious and troubling."

Joe Lieberman said:

“The facts alleged by the Department of Justice paint a disturbing picture of corruption among some officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority."

“serious and troubling” , “disturbing picture” … well I might say it’s a fucking scandal. Especially when you read more about what Bowen told the Committee.

Bowen reported that only 49 of 136 projects originally planned in the water sector will be completed under current Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) allocations. He also estimates that only 300 of the 425 projects planned for the electricity sector will be completed.

These shortfalls follow a 2004 IRRF reprogramming that reduced water sector allocations from $4.3 billion to $2.1 billion in order to increase security funding. The electricity sector dropped from $5.6 billion to $4.3 billion during that reprogramming, (That's a total cut of USD$3.5 Bn !) Bowen reported.

He also reported routine reports of kidnappings, murders, attacks, bombings, vandalism and threats continue to pose extraordinary challenges to contractors.

Since reconstruction began in March 2003, 467 death claims for contractors of all nationalities have been submitted under the Defense Base Act, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The State department claim security costs represent 16 to 22 percent of the overall costs of major infrastructure projects Bowen reported that costs for security of contractors have risen on average more than 25 percent during reconstruction.
Joseph A. Christoff, the Government Accountability Office’s director International Affairs and Trade, echoed Bowen’s comments to the committee.

In his testimony, Christoff notes examples of project cancellations and delays. In March 2005, USAID cancelled two task orders for power generation projects valued at $15 million in order to help fund security issues at another project site. Security concerns also led to the four-month delay of a sewer repair project in 2004.

With 84 percent of the $18.4 billion IRRF funds are obligated under contracts, Bowen recommends that efforts should be focussed on sustaining current projects rather than futile attempts to complete the entire list of proposed projects.

“Corruption is not a pervasive problem on the U.S. side of the reconstruction program,” he says and emphasises security problems. Rather than systemic corruption, audits have focused on inefficiencies and waste in the management of reconstruction contracts, projects and finances, Bowen says. A lack of cost-to-complete estimates and other critical data have hindered efforts to gauge the reconstruction effort, he says.

PS I have now found the whole of the Inspectors report by SIGIR which the Senate received is available on the www.sigir.mil website and is located here PDF Alert! it's 40 pages makes very,very,very interesting reading... I'm glad its not my tax dollars they are (mis)spending.