NYT: The Fog of Accountability
Editorial
The details are graphic: billions of dollars of Iraqi oil revenues — 363 tons of cash — bundled up and urgently flown to Baghdad on 484 pallets from the Federal Reserve Bank to jump-start a new Iraqi government. Four years later, the unanswered questions are just as graphic: Who was responsible for the money? What became of it?
Two years ago, the special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction reported that $8.8 billion of the cash surge could not be adequately accounted for by the Bush administration’s provisional governing authority. The Republican-controlled Congress — which shrugged off oversight responsibilities for President Bush’s failed war — dutifully sidestepped the issue. Thankfully, the new Democratic Congress is finally investigating the disappeared billions and other aspects of the war’s mismanagement.
The details emerging provide a lesson in how easily cash can evaporate into the fog of an unmonitored war. One $500 million outlay was explained away with a one-word record entry — “security” — in the provisional authority’s books. Ten disbursements ranging from $120 million to $900 million have no documentation at all, as if they were petty cash. Paul Bremer III, the former chief of the administration’s provisional authority, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week that Iraq was strictly a cash economy with primitive banking, and that there had been no alternative but to spur reconstruction with a fast and poorly documented infusion of billions. “There are no perfect solutions in Iraq," said Mr. Bremer, still cocky despite the now increasingly apparent and seemingly limitless failures of his tenure.
(Continued here.)
The details are graphic: billions of dollars of Iraqi oil revenues — 363 tons of cash — bundled up and urgently flown to Baghdad on 484 pallets from the Federal Reserve Bank to jump-start a new Iraqi government. Four years later, the unanswered questions are just as graphic: Who was responsible for the money? What became of it?
Two years ago, the special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction reported that $8.8 billion of the cash surge could not be adequately accounted for by the Bush administration’s provisional governing authority. The Republican-controlled Congress — which shrugged off oversight responsibilities for President Bush’s failed war — dutifully sidestepped the issue. Thankfully, the new Democratic Congress is finally investigating the disappeared billions and other aspects of the war’s mismanagement.
The details emerging provide a lesson in how easily cash can evaporate into the fog of an unmonitored war. One $500 million outlay was explained away with a one-word record entry — “security” — in the provisional authority’s books. Ten disbursements ranging from $120 million to $900 million have no documentation at all, as if they were petty cash. Paul Bremer III, the former chief of the administration’s provisional authority, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week that Iraq was strictly a cash economy with primitive banking, and that there had been no alternative but to spur reconstruction with a fast and poorly documented infusion of billions. “There are no perfect solutions in Iraq," said Mr. Bremer, still cocky despite the now increasingly apparent and seemingly limitless failures of his tenure.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
The Republicans have missed the issue. First, it’s the taxpayer’s monies that are missing.
Second, considering all the graft and fraud that is commonplace in Iraq, I would think that the Congress would be concerned that our monies were used to acquire weapons that have been used to make Iraq insecure.
But it’s not just Iraq spending that concerns fiscal conservatives. Democrats are bringing oversight to other areas. The Government Reform Committee also held hearings on Thursday that focused on two examples of multi-billion dollar contracts - $24Billion to modernize the Coast Guards aging fleet that thus far is being called a lemon; and the $30Billion Secure Border Initiative to integrate technology and personnel to defend the nation’s borders.
On Friday, a hearing entitled Allegations of Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in Pharmaceutical Pricing: Financial Impacts on Federal Health Programs and the Federal Taxpayer was scheduled.
I have elaborated on this subject in my blog where I compare the Minnesota Representatives on the Government Reform Committee in the last session and this session.
Here
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