Billions of dollars of reconstruction funds have gone missing in Iraq with the US Defense Department saying it has no record of how the money was spent.
A newly released audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction suggests that the Pentagon is unable to properly account for USD 8.7 billion out of USD 9.1 billion in Iraqi oil revenue entrusted to it between 2004 and 2007.
Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction blames poor record-keeping and lax oversight for the loss.
"Weak oversight is directly correlated to increased numbers of cases of theft and abuse, with the majority of convictions to date being traceable to the 2003-2004 time-frame where accounting practices were weakest," he said in an e-mail, according to a Washington Post report on Tuesday.
Much of the money which came from the sale of Iraqi oil and gas were earmarked for reconstruction projects.
The report also said the US military continues to hold over 34 million dollars of the fund, even though it was required to return it to the Iraqi government in 2007.
"The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss," notes the audit report, a copy of which was obtained Monday by The Los Angeles Times.
Following the formation of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in 2003, the US occupying forces seized around USD 20 billion of Iraqi government funds and allowed through a UN Security Council resolution to use the money for humanitarian assistance and reconstruction.
After the June 2004 dissolution of the CPA, the Iraqi government agreed to let the US military control the remaining funds.
source: pressTv
