with all do respect to the Colonel, he's being a little over-dramatic.
unless he knows something that others don't, (which he doesn't assert in the article) nothing yet has come out close to the $8.8 billion he's talking about. but we'll see i guess.

big deal, i pay the $10 for a large pizza on base too. if a commander wants to charge his guy's $3 a pop for a movie, he likely has a reason. for instance, he might not want his boy's spending all their time at the free flicks all day. seriously.

quote:

Originally posted by Q5echo unless he knows something that others don't, (which he doesn't assert in the article) nothing yet has come out close to the $8.8 billion he's talking about.

quote:

[T]he IAMB has less than three months to account for $7.3 billion of DFI expenditures made by the CPA. [...] An examination of the IAMB minutes reveals gaps in the CPA's management of oil and the continuing exclusion of Iraqis in the oversight of their oil revenues. [...] [T]he absence of details about the source of funds led to confusion about how and when Iraqi oil money was being used. This lack of transparency created the potential for abuse, as occurred when Iraqi revenues from the DFI were being used to renumerate Halliburton, after the US Congress forbid its appropriations from being used to pay for contracts - such as Halliburton's - that were not competitively bid.

http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/041904.pdf

There's $7.3 billion that still hasn't been properly accounted for (which the US continue to refuse to provide information about - click) and then you can add another $2 billion in "quick fire sales":

quote:

New York, June 16, 2004—With international attention focused on the impending transfer of power in Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority is committing billions of dollars to ill-conceived projects just before it dissolves, according to a new briefing by the Open Society Institute's Iraq Revenue Watch Project. The briefing, Iraqi Fire Sale: CPA Giving Away Oil Revenue Billions Before Transition, says that the U.S.-controlled Program Review Board in charge of managing Iraq's finances recently approved the expenditure of nearly $2 billion dollars in Iraqi funds for reconstruction projects. [...] The UN Security Council resolution passed on June 8 requires the new government to satisfy all outstanding obligations against the Development Fund for Iraq made before June 30, leaving the new interim Iraqi government with no choice but to honor the Program Review Board's questionable expenditures. Iraqi Fire Sale warns that without mechanisms in place to ensure accountability, the $2 billion in Iraqi funds will be vulnerable to mismanagement and corruption.

http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/061504.shtml

So we're over that figure of $8.8 billion that hasn't been properly accounted for, due to poor accounting techniques that earned the ire of KPMG, the company responsible for independantly auditing the Iraqi oil money spent by the CPA (click). I guess the colonel may be right after-all.

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It really is maddening.

We have to build toll roads here now because they won't appropriate enough money to build new highways, and all this money is wasted on Iraq...

heres another argument to consider:
Just because the money is missing does not mean it has been stolen


Yes, I know a shocking revelation...

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quote:

Originally posted by Yoepus heres another argument to consider: Just because the money is missing does not mean it has been stolen Yes, I know a shocking revelation...

Considering how companies like Halliburton and KBR have willfully overbilled the taxpayers over a billion so far, you must excuse my skepticism on your argument.

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I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

quote:

Originally posted by Renegade http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/041904.pdf There's $7.3 billion that still hasn't been properly accounted for (which the US continue to refuse to provide information about - click) and then you can add another $2 billion in "quick fire sales": http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/reports/061504.shtml So we're over that figure of $8.8 billion that hasn't been properly accounted for, due to poor accounting techniques that earned the ire of KPMG, the company responsible for independantly auditing the Iraqi oil money spent by the CPA (click). I guess the colonel may be right after-all.

although i do respect your seeking truth in the matter, your reports of $8.8billion is old news.
the current est. is again, around $1 billion as proven by the CPA inspector general's June 30 audit report.
since then there have been 27 criminal investigations, currently pending, by our Justice Dept.
i abhor negligent fraud as much as the next guy and i in no way defending it but the earlier reports of the missing $8.8 billion is now spin. we will see where this goes.

gotta go

And the story breaks six months later!

quote:

The US-led authority that governed Iraq after the 2003 invasion did not properly safeguard $US8.8 billion ($11.4 billion) of Iraq's own money and this lack of oversight opened up these funds to corruption, a US audit has concluded. The US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction was scathing in criticism of how the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) handled Iraqi money until it handed over power last June to Iraq's interim Government. "The CPA provided less-than-adequate controls for approximately $8.8 billion in DFI [Development Fund for Iraq] funds provided to Iraqi ministries through the national budget process," said the report, released on the same day Iraqis voted in elections. "We believe the CPA management of Iraq's national budget process and oversight of Iraqi funds was burdened by severe inefficiencies and poor management," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitem...01/s1292175.htm

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