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June 23, 2004
Conquer and Plunder
The CPA has spent about $10.8 billion and committed another $4.6 billion in Iraqi oil money from the "Development Fund for Iraq" where all the proceeds of Iraqi oil and gas exports are being deposited in accordance with the May 2003 U.N. resolution. The International Advisory and Monitoring Board, appointed by the United Nations to audit the fund, has issued an interim report charging that coalition officials "resisted cooperating with the auditors," refused to turnover "U.S. audits of sole-source contracts funded with Iraqi oil money and awarded to Halliburton last year without competitive bidding," and "delayed completing audits of the State Oil Marketing Organization" which markets Iraqi oil.
Here's the highlights from the Reuters story:
The U.S.-led occupation is sloppily managing billions of dollars of Iraqi oil money and moving at a glacial pace to guard against corruption, an international watchdog agency charged on Tuesday.The Coalition Provisional Authority has yet to award contracts for equipment to meter Iraq's oil production, leaving a door open to smuggling, despite earlier saying it had awarded the contracts, the International Advisory and Monitoring Board said.
The U.S.-led administration also has delayed completing audits of the State Oil Marketing Organization, the state-owned firm that markets Iraqi oil, the U.N.-mandated agency said.
In addition, authorities in Baghdad have put off for three months a request by the board that it turn over U.S. audits of sole-source contracts funded with Iraqi oil money and awarded to Halliburton last year without competitive bidding, the watchdog agency said.
Halliburton, the Texas oil services firm once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, has been accused by some Democrats of war profiteering after winning billions of dollars in sole-source contracts from the U.S. military in Iraq.
The U.S. audits of the Halliburton contracts paid with Iraqi oil money, initially requested in March, had not yet been handed over despite repeated requests, the board said.
All the delaying and obstructing of the audit process means that the U.N. mandated audit may never be completed:
One adviser to a member of the recently disbanded Iraqi Governing Council said the report raised the fear that no audit of the CPA's work would ever be completed. "If the auditors don't finish by June 30, they never will, because the CPA staff are going home," he said. "I lament the lack of transparency and lack of involvement by Iraqis."
Posted by zeynep at June 23, 2004 10:25 AM
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Comments
Have you read anything recently about bribery scandals in the CPA? Last I read was something in the London Times in mid-April.
Posted by: Joel at June 23, 2004 12:51 PM