Iraq: Good Money After Bad

Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee held a hearing on contractor waste, fraud and corruption in Iraq.  The testimony demonstrated not only that incompetence and greed have resulted in the wide scale theft of taxpayer money, but also that the lack of accountability and corruption is directly tied to the instability in that country:

Judge Al-Radhi Said Corruption Keeps Millions of Iraqis in Poverty and Funds Violence. "Corruption in Iraq today is rampant across the government, costing tens of billions of dollars, and has infected virtually every agency and ministries, including some of the most powerful officials. Corruption has been part of the failure of the government of Iraq to control the militia that control parts of government. Unfortunately, today in Iraq, corruption has infected our biggest source of money:  oil. Corruption has infected those who have the guns to restore law and order.  And corruption has infected the very government officials who promise a new, better Iraq. Corruption keeps millions of Iraqis in inhumane living conditions and it funds the killing of U.S. and Iraqi forces." [Judge Al-Radhi’s Testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee, 3/11/08]

Corruption and wasted taxpayer money in Iraq is certainly not limited to American contractors.  Rather, as Congress submissively keeps sending billions upon billions into the black hole of unaccountability that is post-invasion Iraq, it's become clear over the last several years that everyone and anyone in Iraq is clamoring for cash.  The tragic outrage of it all? Except for a hearing here and there on Capitol Hill, under the "leadership" of President Bush, the American government doesn't seem to give a damn.

Last fall, Vanity Fair published a must-read article on the shocking incompetence which lead to the missing money:

[A]fter the money was delivered to Iraq, oversight and control evaporated. Of the $12 billion in U.S. banknotes delivered to Iraq in 2003 and 2004, at least $9 billion cannot be accounted for. A portion of that money may have been spent wisely and honestly; much of it probably wasn't. Some of it was stolen.

Once the money arrived in Iraq it entered a free-for-all environment where virtually anyone with fingers could take some of it. Moreover, the company that was hired to keep tabs on the outflow of money existed mainly on paper. Based in a private home in San Diego, it was a shell corporation with no certified public accountants. Its address of record is a post-office box in the Bahamas, where it is legally incorporated. That post-office box has been associated with shadowy offshore activities.

The article is filled with outrageous anecdotes of waste, fraud, and corruption.  Some infuriating examples:

An Iraqi hospital administrator told The Guardian of England that, when he arrived to sign a contract, the army officer representing the C.P.A. had crossed out the original price and doubled it. "The American officer explained that the increase (more than $1 million) was his retirement package." Alan Grayson, a Washington, D.C., lawyer for whistle-blowers who have worked for American contractors in Iraq, says simply that during that first year under the C.P.A. the country was turned into "a free-fraud zone."

Once the cash passed into the hands of the Iraqis or any other party, no one knew where it went. The C.P.A. turned over $1.5 billion in cash to Iraqi banks, for instance, but later auditors could account for less than $500 million.

Of 8,206 "guards" drawing paychecks courtesy of the C.P.A., only 602 warm bodies could in fact be found; the other 7,604 were ghost employees. Halliburton, the government contractor once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, charged the C.P.A. for 42,000 daily meals for soldiers while in fact serving only 14,000 of them.

The difference it made was that some American contractors correctly believed they could walk off with as much money as they could carry. The circumstances that surround the handling of comparatively small sums help explain the billions that ultimately vanished. In the south-central region of Iraq a contracting officer stored $2 million in a safe in his bathroom.

Custer Battles had billed the government $400,000 for electricity that cost $74,000. It had billed $432,000 for a food order that cost $33,000. It had charged the C.P.A. for leased equipment that was stolen, and had submitted forged invoices for reimbursement—all the while moving millions of dollars into offshore bank accounts.

This is what retired admiral David Oliver, the C.P.A.'s director of management and budget had to say about what happened to the billions of dollars sent to Iraq:

"I have no idea—I can't tell you whether or not the money went to the right things or didn't—nor do I actually think it's important."

Over the last few years, stories about the greatest mishandling of taxpayer money n the history of the United States have peppered the media landscape.  Three years ago, we learned that some $9 billion were "lost" in Iraq.  In May of 2005, it was reported that 100 million dollars  was missing ("worse case scenario, someone took it home," an official said).  Last fall, some 1.6 billion, meant for the training of Iraqi troops, was reported "unaccounted for."  About three months ago, we learned that $1 billion in military equipment was lost in Iraq.

There are so many questions yet to be answered about who stole or misused American money in Iraq, and yesterday's hearing is good first start.  How many billions have been lost? Were did they go? Why is this happening?  How can we prevent it in the future? Who should be held accountable?

But the greatest question of all:  how can Congress in good conscience continue to appropriate billions for this mess?  How can Congress continue to give this president blank checks which are being cashed in by the greedy, the corrupt, and the incompetent?  

In short, how can this government justify its irresponsible handling of taxpayer money?

The answer? It can't.