Senate Committee Seeks Audit of Iraq Oil Money

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

Two senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee have requested a full accounting of how Iraq is spending its soaring oil revenues, amid starkly conflicting estimates of how much the country has invested in rebuilding its broken infrastructure and providing basic services to its citizens.

The request, sent Friday to David M. Walker, the top official at the United States Government Accountability Office, estimates that Iraqi oil revenues could skyrocket above $56 billion in 2008, largely because of the rising price of oil.

This enormous influx of cash comes as the United States has been reducing spending on the reconstruction effort. Since the invasion in 2003, the United States has invested close to $50 billion in reconstruction, but the effort has achieved at best mixed results when measured by improvements in the lives of Iraqi citizens.

Still, the American military and State Department continue to finance a wide range of relatively small reconstruction projects as well as training and equipment for Iraqi military forces.

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The letter was signed by Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is the committee chairman, and Senator John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican who is a former chairman. Senator John McCain of Arizona, the ranking Republican on the committee and the presumptive Republican nominee for president, did not sign the letter.





Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/world/middleeast/09iraq.html?hp

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P'ssst - have you checked Chalabi's secret bank accounts?

[struggle4progress]

1. Mystery of the Missing Meters: Accounting for Iraq's Oil Revenue (CorpWatch Mar 07)

By Pratap Chatterjee
CorpWatch
March 22, 2007

The line of ships at the Al Basra Oil Terminal (ABOT) stretches south to the horizon ... If the southern oil fields are the heart of Iraq's economy, its main arteries are three 40-plus inch pipelines that stretch some 52 miles from Iraq's wells to the ports ... Meanwhile .. smugglers are suspected to be diverting .. billions of dollars worth of crude onto tankers because the oil metering system .. has not worked since the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Officials blame the four-year delay in repairing the relatively simple system on "security problems." Others point to the failed efforts of the two U.S. companies hired to repair the southern oil fields, fix the two terminals, and the meters: Halliburton of Houston, Texas, and Parsons of Pasadena, California ... Iraq is the victim of the biggest robbery of its oil production in modern history," blazed a March 2006 headline in .. Iraq's most widely read newspaper ... Iraq's main revenue source - earnings from the export sales of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas - is currently managed by the Development Fund for Iraq ... Neither US officials nor contractors have provided good reasons why, four years into the US occupation, the meters have not been calibrated, repaired, or replaced ... http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/oil/2007/0322missingmeters.htm

[struggle4progress]

2. Continuation of the National Emergency Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 21, 2007

Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq Has An Interest

On May 22, 2003, by Executive Order 13303, I declared a national emergency protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and certain other property in which Iraq has an interest, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) (IEEPA). I took this action to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq constituted by the threat of attachment or other judicial process against the Development Fund for Iraq, Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein, and proceeds, obligations, or any financial instruments of any nature whatsoever arising from or related to the sale or marketing thereof, and interests therein ...

I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and certain other property in which Iraq has an interest.

GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 18, 2007

[struggle4progress]

3. Security Council, acting on Iraq's request, extends 'for last time' mandate of multinational force

Security Council
5808th Meeting (PM)

... Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1790 (2007), deciding further that the mandate would be reviewed at the request of the Government of Iraq or no later than 15 June 2008. The mandate would be terminated earlier if the Iraqi Government requested the Council to do so.

The Council also extended until 31 December 2008 the arrangements for the depositing into the Development Fund for Iraq of proceeds from export sales of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas, as well as the arrangements for the monitoring of the Fund by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB), deciding also that the arrangements would be reviewed at the request of the Iraqi Government or no later than 15 June 2008. Those arrangements are described in paragraphs 12, 20, 22 and 23 of resolution 1483 of 22 May 2003 (see Press Release SC/7765), and paragraphs 24 and 27 of resolution 1546 of 8 June 2004 (see Press Release SC/8117) ...

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sc9207.doc.htm

[struggle4progress]

4. Levin-Warner letter text

Published by Iraq Oil Report at March 7, 2008 in News Feed ...

The Honorable David M. Walker
Comptroller General of the United States
441 G. Street, NW
Washington, DC 20548

Dear Mr. Walker:
Nearly five years ago, on March 27, 2003, then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, in testimony before the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, was asked whom he expected would pay for the rebuilding of Iraq. He answered that “there’s a lot of money to pay for this. It doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money. And it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people …the oil revenues of that county could bring between 50 and 100 billion dollars over the course of the next two or three years…. We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.”

In fact, we believe that it has been overwhelmingly U.S. taxpayer money that has funded Iraq reconstruction over the last five years, despite Iraq earning billions of dollars in oil revenue over that time period that have ended up in non-Iraqi banks. At the same time, our conversations with both Iraqis and Americans during our frequent visits to Iraq, as well as official government and unofficial media reports, have convinced us that the Iraqi Government is not doing nearly enough to provide essential services and improve the quality of life of its citizens.

According to the U.S. Department of State’s Iraq Weekly Status Report for February 27, 2008, the Iraq Oil Ministry goal for 2008 is to produce 2.2 million barrels per day (MBPD). To date through the 24th of February, the 2008 weekly averages have ranged from a low of 2.1 MBPD to a high of 2.51 MBPD, missing that goal for one week only. Exports are over 1.9 MBPD, with revenues estimated at $41.0 billion in 2007 and $9.4 billion in 2008 year to date.

Extrapolating the $9.4 billion of oil revenues for the first two months of 2008 yields an estimate of $56.4 billion for all of 2008. And that figure will probably be low given the predictions for oil prices to continue to rise over the coming year. In essence, we believe that Iraq will accrue at least $100.0 billion in oil revenues in 2007 and 2008.

We request you look into this matter and provide answers to the following questions:

• What are the estimated Iraqi oil revenues each year from 2003-2007?
• How much has Iraq and the United States, respectively, spent annually during that time period on training, equipping and supporting Iraqi security forces, and on Iraq reconstruction, governance, and economic development?
• What are the projections for oil revenue and spending for 2008?
• What is the estimate of the total Iraqi oil revenue that has accumulated unspent from 2003-2007, and the expected estimate at the end of 2008?
• How much money does the Iraqi Government have deposited, in which banks, and in what countries?
• Why has the Iraqi Government not spent more of its oil revenue on reconstruction, economic development and providing essential services for the Iraqi people?

Your assistance in this matter would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

John Warner Carl Levin
Member Chairman

http://iraqoilreport.com/