U.S. Paid Iraq Contractors in Cash. "Billions... wasted and pilfered"

[paineinthearse]

From American Progress:

IRAQ – NO PAPER TRAIL: Testimony from Frank Willis, a former official of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), has shed new light on the mismanagement of funds in Iraq during the early months of the United States occupation of the country. Describing the situation as the "Wild West," Willis summed up the situation as "inexperienced officials, fear of decision-making, lack of communications, minimal security, no banks, and lots of money to spread around." Under the oversight of the Pentagon, the CPA paid contractors in cash that it obtained from one of Saddam Hussein's palace basement vaults "because the country lacked a functioning banking system." According to the "spokesman for the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction," making payments in cash continues to this day under the "U.S.-funded reconstruction." Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) declared, "This isn't penny ante. Millions, perhaps billions of dollars have been wasted and pilfered."

U.S. Said to Pay Iraq Contractors in Cash

Sun Feb 13, 6:56 PM ET White House - AP Cabinet & State
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials in postwar Iraq (news - web sites) paid a contractor by stuffing $2 million worth of crisp bills into his gunnysack and routinely made cash payments around Baghdad from a pickup truck, a former official with the U.S. occupation government says. Because the country lacked a functioning banking system, contractors and Iraqi ministry officials were paid with bills taken from a basement vault in one of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s palaces that served as headquarters for the Coalition Provisional Authority, former CPA official Frank Willis said.



Officials from the CPA, which ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, would count the money when it left the vault, but nobody kept track of the cash after that, Willis said. "In sum: inexperienced officials, fear of decision-making, lack of communications, minimal security, no banks, and lots of money to spread around. This chaos I have referred to as a 'Wild West,'" Willis said in testimony he prepared to give Monday before a panel of Democratic senators who want to spotlight the waste of U.S. funds in Iraq.

A senior official in the 1980s at the State and Transportation departments under then-President Ronald Reagan, Willis provided The Associated Press with a copy of his testimony and answered questions in an interview. James Mitchell, spokesman for the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, told the AP that cash payments in Iraq were a problem when the occupation authority ran the country and they continue during the massive U.S.-funded reconstruction. "There are no capabilities to electronically transfer funds," Mitchell said. "This complicates the financial management of reconstruction projects and complicates our ability to follow the money."

The Pentagon, which had oversight of the CPA, did not immediately comment in response to requests Friday and over the weekend. But the administrator of the former U.S. occupation agency, L. Paul Bremer III, in response to a recent federal audit criticizing the CPA, strongly defended the agency's financial practices. Bremer said auditors mistakenly assumed that "Western-style budgeting and accounting procedures could be immediately and fully implemented in the midst of a war."

more.....

[Al-CIAda]

1. kick

[paineinthearse]

4. .

[tanyev]

2. What about all those young hot-shot CPA employees

who got hired because they submitted their resumes to the Heritage Foundation? Any of them driving really fancy cars now that they're back??

[cthrumatrix]

3. the testimony should be prime time TV ....you can't believe the corruption

watch the media report nothing

[paineinthearse]

5. Are you saying there will be televised hearings? nt