.Editorial: U.S. self-inflicted wounds in Iraq
The ever-growing loss of life in the Iraq war is hard for many Americans to accept with equanimity. But what is also unacceptable in that war is the siphoning of billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayers' funds in outright fraud or administrative incompetence. That's outrageous and must not continue.
The latest evidence of such fiscal abuse and unaccountability surfaced this week in two separate reports ripping apart the State Department's oversight of a $1.2 billion contract for training Iraqi police. The program, run by a private American company, DynCorp, was so badly managed that a government audit could not figure out how the money was spent. And the State Department's own review found that it would take up to five years to sort out missing invoices and demand repayment from DynCorp for unjustified expenses.
Such expenses include the purchase of a $1.8 million X-ray scanner that was never used, and $4 million for 20 luxury trailers and an Olympic-sized swimming pool for company representatives - funds that were intended to build an Iraqi police compound. That's just the start. DynCorp, the State Department's largest contractor, claims no intentional fraud was involved. But then what borders on criminality is the department's own ineptness.
Training Iraqi police to take up security tasks now shouldered by U.S. troops is a key part of our strategy in Iraq. The waste and possible fraud uncovered by these reports undermine that goal. They are self-inflicted wounds.
Newsday
The saddest part I see in this report is not that there is this type of fraud. The sad part is that I have been reading about it on the blogs for the last four years, and they are just getting around to discovering it today. That is the sad part, and the deepest wound of all.
The latest evidence of such fiscal abuse and unaccountability surfaced this week in two separate reports ripping apart the State Department's oversight of a $1.2 billion contract for training Iraqi police. The program, run by a private American company, DynCorp, was so badly managed that a government audit could not figure out how the money was spent. And the State Department's own review found that it would take up to five years to sort out missing invoices and demand repayment from DynCorp for unjustified expenses.
Such expenses include the purchase of a $1.8 million X-ray scanner that was never used, and $4 million for 20 luxury trailers and an Olympic-sized swimming pool for company representatives - funds that were intended to build an Iraqi police compound. That's just the start. DynCorp, the State Department's largest contractor, claims no intentional fraud was involved. But then what borders on criminality is the department's own ineptness.
Training Iraqi police to take up security tasks now shouldered by U.S. troops is a key part of our strategy in Iraq. The waste and possible fraud uncovered by these reports undermine that goal. They are self-inflicted wounds.
Newsday
The saddest part I see in this report is not that there is this type of fraud. The sad part is that I have been reading about it on the blogs for the last four years, and they are just getting around to discovering it today. That is the sad part, and the deepest wound of all.
posted by madtom at 9:22 PM
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