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Federal TimesIG: Cancel delayed system meant to track Iraq spending
By ELISE CASTELLI | Last Updated: January 26, 2010
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Print this page E-mail this article The State Department is spending $5 million to build a database to track $47.5 billion in U.S. spending on Iraqi reconstruction projects.
Trouble is, by the time the database is up and running, almost all of the reconstruction funds will be spent, says a top auditor who is pressing the State Department to cancel the project as a waste of money.
"Replacing
a year from now would not be a cost-beneficial way to track the small amount of U.S.-funded reconstruction projects that would remain after October 2010," when the project is expected to be finished, wrote special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction Stuart Bowen in a report released Tuesday.
It was Bowen who initially urged State in 2008 to launch a new version of the Iraq Reconstruction Management System (IRMS) to keep an accurate account of reconstruction spending. But the project has been plagued by delays and won't launch until October at the earliest, when more than 95 percent of the reconstruction funds are expected to be spent.
Further, most agencies involved in reconstruction do not use the existing IRMS to track and report their spending. The Defense Department uses the Army Corps of Engineers Financial Management System, while most State Department agencies and the U.S. Agency for International Development use the Foreign Assistance Coordination and Tracking System, Bowen said.
Read more: http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20100126/DEPARTMENTS08/1260302/1009/ACQUISITION
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