XPost: alt.fan.barbra.streisand, alt.fan.j-garofalo, alt.fan.julia-roberts
XPost: alt.politics.democrats
From: eng@G0LDFARB.C0M
On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 07:07:06 GMT, "Brandon K. Montoya"
wrote:
>Leland Milton Goldblatt Are All Repug Idiots? wrote:
>>
>> Conservatives can't keep their hands off the public's money.
>
>On that note:
>
>
>Audit: U.S Did Not Safeguard $8.8 Bln of Iraq Money
> Sun Jan 30, 2005 04:06 PM ET
>
> By Sue Pleming
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led authority that governed
>Iraq after the 2003 invasion did not properly safeguard $8.8 billion
>of Iraq's own money and this lack of oversight opened up these funds
>to corruption, said a U.S. audit released on Sunday.
> The U.S. 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.
> DFI is made up of proceeds from Iraqi oil sales, frozen assets
>from foreign governments and surplus from the U.N. Oil for Food
>Program. Its handling has already come under fire by several
>U.N.-mandated audits.
> The report said the CPA failed to ensure funds were not used
>to pay "ghost" employees and cited one example where CPA officials
>authorized payment for about 74,000 guards but only a fraction of
>these could later be validated.
> The audit said there was no assurance that the funds were used
>for purposes mandated by United Nations resolutions.
> U.N auditors have also accused the CPA of sloppily managing
>billions of dollars of Iraqi oil money and moving at a glacial pace to
>guard against corruption.
> BREMER REJECTION
> Former CPA chief Paul Bremer, who received a Presidential
>Medal of Freedom last month for his work in Iraq, rejected the U.S.
>audit's findings and said it did not "meet the standards that
>Americans have come to expect of the Inspector General."
> "The draft report assumes that Western-style budgeting and
>accounting procedures could be immediately and fully implemented in
>the midst of war," said Bremer in a written reply to auditors when he
>received the first draft.
> Bremer said any delays in paying Iraqi public servants'
>salaries would have raised the security threat to Iraqis and Americans
>and cost more lives.
> In addition, Bremer said the Iraqi ministries had no regular
>payroll systems and the "system had been corrupted beyond repair by
>decades of cronyism and ad hoc fixes."
> The auditors said they understood the CPA was working in a
>dangerous environment but it had a responsibility to ensure Iraqi
>ministries had basic financial controls before they were entrusted
>with handling such large amounts of money.
> "The fact that the Iraqi ministries ceased to or had never
>functioned, lacked basic tools and operated in a cash economy was
>precisely why the CPA should have provided oversight of the financial
>management of the funds."
> A review of 10 payments made by the CPA Comptrollers Office
>between October 2003 and June 2004 found none of these -- ranging
>between $120 million and $900 million -- included documentation such
>as budget spending plans.
> In another example, about $1.5 billion in cash allocations was
>made to Iraqi banks between January and April 2004 for operating
>expenses, yet spending plans supported only about $498 million in
>these expenses.
> The Defense Department also rejected the findings and said the
>"sweeping and unqualified conclusion" was not accurate.
> One of the main benefactors of Iraq funds was Texas-based firm
>Halliburton, which was paid about $1.7 billion dollars out of those
>funds to bring in fuel for Iraqi civilians. U.N. auditors have asked
>for a full accounting of these funds.
>
> © Reuters 2005
>
>
>
>> They
>> say they are for less government unless it profits them or helps the
>> poor. Conservatives want to starve kids, kick old people out on the
>> street, make poor people have to eat dog food to survive, poison the
>> air, land and water and kill millions of American kids with your
>> imperialist wars and put billions in their pockets through companies
>> like Halliburton. And now Soical Secuirty with out fixing it by
>> raising taxes on 90,0000 a year earners! But Bush, the fake moderate
>> can raise airport taxes.
>>
>> G. W Bush is the dumbest president we have ever had! He has his
>> father's cronies to prop him up. ...
>>
>> Shalom,
>>
>> ---Prof. Leland Milton Goldblatt, Ph.D. ®
>> new----> www.prof.faithweb.com ® <------
>>
>> The only people left with positive opinions are those who are too
>> stupid to know when their opinions are absurd. Consequently the world
>> is ruled by fools, and the intelligent count for nothing. --Prof.
>> Goldblatt said of 2002 election of Republicans in the US Senate.
>> Goldblatt Adjunct and Senior Fellow at the William and Stanley
>> Fellowship went on to say, we have a Attorney General and President out
>> of control our country is headed for very deep trouble Spending
>> taxpayer money on political campaigning and und-raising is the type of
>> frivolous spending I thought President Bush vowed to curb.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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