8.8 billion missing in Iraq funds

Sounds like it was just another day for profiteers. Heh.

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.
...

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.
- MSNBC > full article

... Talk about plagued with errors - not just the CPA (whose head was the de facto governor of Iraq) but the Administration that the occupational authority got its orders from. So much money mismanagement. I don't think it's incompetence though behind it. Probably just simple corporate greed.