From: "Rich Gauszka" 

A billion here a billion there.  I remember a time when conservatives were
fiscally prudent and reports like this would have mattered.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17100131%255E2703
,00.html
Mr Bowen said Iraq lost more than $US2 billion ($A2.63 billion) each year
in stolen gasoline and diesel fuel supplies.

Iraq's Bureau of Supreme Audit charged that up to $US1.27 billion from 90
contracts was lost from June 2004 to February 2005 because deals were given
to "favoured suppliers" and cash was given to third-party firms
to work out contracts

"Mark"  wrote in message
news:4365b743$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> Sounds like Bowen and that wank that used to work for Powell, Wilkerson
> (Wilkinson?), are drinking buddies.  that >
>
> "Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
> news:4365af04{at}w3.nls.net...
>> Mr Bowen found that "systematic planning" for the
post-hostilities period
>> in Iraq was "insufficient in both scope and implementation".
>>
>> http://news.ft.com/cms/s/1005fd16-4984-11da-8686-0000779e2340,_i_rssPage=80f
daff6-cbe5-11d7-81c6-0820abe49a01.html
>>
>> US 'had no policy' in place to rebuild Iraq
>>
>>
>> The US government had "no comprehensive policy or regulatory
guidelines"
>> in place for staffing the management of postwar Iraq, according to the
>> top government watchdog overseeing the country's reconstruction.
>>
>>
>> The lack of planning had plagued reconstruction since the US-led
>> invasion, and been exacerbated by a "general lack of
co-ordination"
>> between US government agencies charged with the rebuilding of Iraq, said
>> Stuart Bowen, the special inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction, in a
>> report released on Sunday.
>>
>>
>> His 110-page quarterly report, delivered to Congress at the weekend, has
>> underscored how a "reconstruction gap" is emerging that
threatens to
>> leave many projects planned by the US on the drawing board.
>>
>>
>> "Nearly two years ago, the US developed a reconstruction plan that
>> specified a target number of projects that would be executed using the
>> Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.
>>
>>
>> "That number was revised downward [last year]. Now it appears that the
>> actual number of projects completed will be even lower," Mr
Bowen says in
>> his report.
>>
>>
>> Increasing security costs were "the most salient" reason
behind the
>> shortfall, he concluded.
>>
>>
>> While 93 per cent of the nearly $30bn (?25bn, œ17bn) the US has
>> appropriated for reconstruction has been committed to programmes and
>> projects, more than 25 per cent of the funds have been spent on security
>> costs related to the insurgency.
>>
>>
>> The largest expected increase in costs to complete planned projects had
>> occurred in the Project and Contracting Office (PCO), which manages
>> projects in the oil, electrical, security and water sectors and has been
>> allocated $4.6bn in reconstruction funds.
>>
>>
>> While in most sectors PCO data indicated that project costs would not
>> exceed initial estimates, Mr Bowen found that oil sector-related costs
>> had been under-estimated by about $790m.
>>
>>
>> Conflicting data also showed "possible funding anomalies", because
>> although the PCO reported that more than 85 per cent of oil projects were
>> on or ahead of schedule, other data showed that the cost of completing
>> the tasks was increasing beyond initial estimates.
>>
>>
>> The report said a separate agency given the job of assisting the Iraqi
>> government in training and equipping security forces - a job for which it
>> was allocated $835m - had spent 14 per cent more than originally
>> estimated.
>>
>>
>> The special inspector-general also highlighted a stark increase in
>> non-military deaths in connection to Iraq's reconstruction. The number of
>> non-Iraqi contractor deaths from all countries rose to 412 for the period
>> of March 2003 to September 2005. That compared to 120 deaths up until
>> Sptember last year.
>>
>>
>> While the most successful post-conflict reconstruction effort in US
>> history - the reconstruction of Japan and Germany following the second
>> world war - began being planned in the months after the US entered the
>> war, Mr Bowen found that "systematic planning" for the
post-hostilities
>> period in Iraq was "insufficient in both scope and
implementation".
>>
>>
>
>

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