WP: $1.9 Billion of Iraq's Money Goes to U.S. Contractors

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37822-2004Aug3.html

Halliburton Co. and other U.S. contractors are being paid at least $1.9 billion from Iraqi funds under an arrangement set by the U.S.-led occupation authority, according to a review of documents and interviews with government agencies, companies and auditors.

Most of the money is for two controversial deals that originally had been financed with money approved by the U.S. Congress, but later shifted to Iraqi funds that were governed by fewer restrictions and less rigorous oversight.

For the first 14 months of the occupation, officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority provided little detailed information about the Iraqi money, from oil sales and other sources, that it spent on reconstruction contracts. They have said it was used for the benefit of the Iraqi people and that most of the contracts paid from Iraqi money went to Iraqi companies. But the CPA never released information about specific contracts and the identities of companies that won them, citing security concerns, so it has been impossible to know whether these promises were kept.

The CPA has said it has awarded about 2,000 contracts with Iraqi money. Its inspector general compiled records for the major contracts, which it defined as those worth $5 million or more each. Analysis of those and other records shows that 19 of 37 major contracts funded by Iraqi money went to U.S. companies and at least 85 percent of the total $2.26 billion was obligated to U.S. companies. The contracts that went to U.S. firms may be worth several hundred million more once the work is completed.

That analysis and several audit reports released in recent weeks shed new light on how the occupation authority handled the Iraqi money it controlled. They show that the CPA at times violated its own rules, authorizing Iraqi money when it didn't have a quorum or proper Iraqi representation at meetings, and kept such sloppy records that the paperwork for several major contracts could not be found. During the first half of the occupation, the CPA depended heavily on no-bid contracts that were questioned by auditors. And the occupation's shifting of projects that were publicly announced to be financed by U.S. money to Iraqi money prompted the Iraqi finance minister to complain that the "ad hoc" process put the CPA in danger of losing the trust of the people.

....what happened to the equivalent amount in American taxpayer dollars that had been approved but wasn't used for the approved expenditures?

Grifters. Goddam grifters.

They finished looting our treasury, so now they're starting on Iraq's! :grr:

$$$$$$$$$$ for HALIBURTON and Dick Cheney's friends.

They got rid of Saddam for THIS? :wtf:

"We believe that contracts awarded with Iraqi funds were for the sole benefit of the Iraqi people, without exception"

SO!!! ALL the US money alloted was for their benefit. We BLEW up their country!

I bring you the stately matron called CHRISTENDOM -- returning bedraggled, besmirched and dishonored from pirate raids....; with her soul full of meanness, her pocket full of boodle and her mouth full of pious hypocrisies. Give her soap and a towel, but hide the looking-glass." -Mark Twain

"WE BELIEVE the contracts awarded..." So if it turns out to be another wearisome lie, don't hold us to it... like "Britain has found..."

Love the Twain quote.

Pathetic what people who already have so much money they don't know what to do with it will stoop to for the bottom line.

Somebody ought to tell Dick he can't take it with him.

I'm going to throw a fucking party what that asshole meets his maker.

the troops, dontcha know???

:puke:

This country is SO assbackwards sometimes.

:grr:

can't be accounted for or FUTURE payables!!!

Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., a subsidiary of Halliburton, was paid $1.66 billion from the Iraqi money, primarily to cover the cost of importing fuel from Kuwait. The job was tacked on to a no-bid contract that was the subject of several investigations after allegations surfaced that a subcontractor for Houston-based KBR overcharged by as much as $61 million for the fuel.