1115.org

Nine billion dollars. It’s a lot of money, enough money to repair the Hubble telescope nine times. Or build six of the new World Trade Center “Freedom Towers”. Or fix a hell of a lot of schools and potholes, if you’re into that sort of sissy stuff.

Nine billion dollars is also the amount of reconstruction money that is unaccounted for in Iraq, according to a recent audit.

Nearly $9 billion of money spent on Iraqi reconstruction is unaccounted for because of inefficiencies and bad management, according to a watchdog report published Sunday.

An inspector general’s report said the U.S.-led administration that ran Iraq until June 2004 is unable to account for the funds.

“Severe inefficiencies and poor management” by the Coalition Provisional Authority has left auditors with no guarantee the money was properly used,” the report said.

It might amuse you to note that the head of the CPA during this time is none other than Paul Bremer, last seen having a Presidential Medal of Freedom hung around his neck. Of course, Bremer disputes the findings of the audit and claims that the wartime environment made it difficult to implement a fully-transparent budget system. The CPS was also at the mercy of the Iraqi ministries, who were supposed to manage the funds that were sent to them. Translation: “It’s not our fault.”

Oh really? Then whose fault is it? As the main link between American funds and Iraqi government, the CPA would have been directly responsible for the oversight of reconstruction money and contracts. According to the audit, such oversight was inadequate at best, compounded by staffing shortages and a lack of clear guidelines and managerial responsibility. In addition, the CPA approved hundreds of millions of dollars in development contracts for which there were no budget plans, transferred fiscal authority to Iraqi ministries without financial controls in place, and hired an independent accounting firm that didn’t even staff certified public accountants.

Yes, Iraq is a messy situation. It would be impossible to expect that every transition go smoothly, to that every dollar be accounted for. But misplacing $9 billion isn’t quite the same as losing some coins in the sofa cushions, and can’t be explained away quite so easily. It’s also quite ironic that we can piss and moan about billions of dollars of fraud and corruption in the UN Oil-for-Food program, and then try to dance around the fraud and corruption that happened under our watch. As Representatives Henry Waxman and Tom Lantos noted in their call for hearings on the matter, the Inspector General’s report was held back until after the Presidential and Iraq elections, later than what is usually expected.

With the cost of the Iraq war approaching $153 billion (not counting the President’s recent request for more funds), it’s every American’s right to make sure that the funds flowing into Iraq have been well accounted for, and are being managed correctly. No system is ever perfect, but $9 billion of missing money is nothing less than a gigantic sign of fiscal incompetence that begs the question: how is the rest of the money being spent?

We may never know for sure.