Audit: U.S.-Led Occupation Squandered Aid

"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Iraqi money gambled away in the Philippines. Thousands spent on a swimming pool that was never used. An elevator repaired so poorly that it crashed, killing people.

A U.S. government audit found American-led occupation authorities squandered tens of millions of dollars that were supposed to be used to rebuild Iraq through undocumented spending and outright fraud.

Dryly written audit reports describe the Coalition Provisional Authority‘s offices in the south-central city of Hillah being awash in bricks of $100 bills taken from a central vault without documentation.

"Tens of millions of dollars in cash had gone in and out of the South-Central Region vault without any tracking of who deposited or withdrew the money, and why it was taken out," says a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which is in the midst of a series of audits for the Pentagon and State Department.

The audits offer a window into the chaotic U.S.-led occupation of Iraq of 2003-04, when inexperienced American officials — including workers from President Bush ‘s election campaign — organized a cash-intensive "hearts and minds" mission to rebuild Iraq‘s devastated economy."
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