Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Iraq Inspector's Final Audit

So what's the amount lost?

"US wasted billions in Iraq work, auditors say; Actual amount can’t be known, report concludes" by Robert Burns  |  Associated Press, July 14, 2012

WASHINGTON — After years of following the paper trail of $51 billion in US taxpayer dollars provided to rebuild Iraq, the US government can say with certainty that too much was wasted. But it can’t say how much.

In what it called its final audit report on Friday, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Funds listed a range of accounting weaknesses that put ‘‘billions of American taxpayer dollars at risk of waste and misappropriation’’ in the largest reconstruction project of its kind in US history. ‘‘The precise amount lost to fraud and waste can never be known,’’ the report said.  

Related: Latest On Rabbi Zakheim And The Missing $2.3 Trillion

And the very next day the Pentagon office investigating that was destroyed. Hmmmm.

The auditors found huge problems accounting for the huge sums, but one small example of failure stood out: A contractor got away with charging $80 for a pipe fitting that its competitor was selling for $1.41. Why? The company’s billing documents were reviewed sloppily by contracting officers or were not reviewed at all....   

Maybe someone should have an ear chopped off or something. 

Ever notice when it comes to welfare, some social program, or something you need from government the attitude isn't just pay the man?

 --more--"

Those who paid the ultimate price:

"In Iraq war, 719 died on projects; US tallies deaths of ‘rebuilders’ " by Robert Burns  |  Associated Press, July 27, 2012

WASHINGTON — In the first tally of its kind, a federal investigative agency has calculated that at least 719 people, nearly half of them Americans, were killed working on projects to rebuild Iraq following the US invasion in 2003.

The toll represents an aspect of the Iraq war that is rarely brought to public attention, overshadowed by the much higher number killed in combat as well as the billions of taxpayer dollars squandered on reconstruction.

There is no confirmed total number of Iraq war deaths. The US military lost 4,488 in Iraq and its allies a little over 300. The number of Iraq deaths has not been established but is thought to exceed 100,000....   

Try millions -- and that was over three years ago!  

Of course, what do you expect from a complicit, enabling, war-criminal press? That's blood on their hands.

The army of lawyers, engineers, contractors, and others who paid a heavy price trying to put a broken Iraq and its shattered economy back together....

The actual number of people killed doing reconstruction work is probably much higher but....   

But what?

--more--"  

My audit of AmeriKan media coverage of Iraq these last 9 years? 

Atrocious and abominable. Heck, what am I talking about? 

It's been that way for decades if not forever.