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Audit Finds Millions Wasted In Iraq Reconstruction Contract
WASHINGTON - Millions of dollars were likely wasted on a 900 million dollar army contract to build courthouses, prisons, police and other security facilities in Iraq, an audit released Monday has found.
The audit by the congressionally appointed Special Inspector General for Iraq, Stuart Bowen, found that the contractor, Parsons Delaware Inc., completed only about a third of 53 planned construction projects.
"Although the failure to complete some of the work is understandable because of its complex nature and the unstable security environment in Iraq, millions of dollars in waste are likely associated with incomplete, terminated and abandoned projects under this contract," the audit report said.
The contract was one of a dozen design-build construction contracts awarded by the army in 2004 to restore Iraq's infrastructure in broad areas such as security and justice, water, oil, electricity and transportation.
Parsons was supposed to build police and civil defense training areas, two prisons, two courthouses, fire stations, and border control facilities.
The report said more than 142 million dollars, or nearly 43 percent of the funds disbursed so far, "were spent on projects that were either terminated or cancelled, although a number of the projects were subsequently completed."
Repeated construction delays prompted the government to cancel the construction of two partially built prisons, one at Nasiriyah and the other at Khan Bani Saad, the audit said.
The Nasiriyah prison was later completed by another contractor, but the facility at Khan Bani Saad was turned over half finished to the Iraqi government which has no plans to use it, the audit said.
It said about 40 million dollars has been spent on the Khan Bani Saad prison.
"At this point the entire amount disbursed for this project may ultimately be wasted because the government of Iraq currently has no plans for completing or using this facility," the audit said.
The audit said there were "significant weaknesses" in the government's oversight of the contract, which created "an environment that was conducive to waste and inefficiency."
© 2008 Agence France Presse
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13 Comments so far
Show AllMillions Wasted
Millions of lives
Millions of Millions of Dollars
That's the real purpose behind "Mission Accomplished"
This is rediculous.
Of course the money was wasted. ALL money sent to Iraq is wasted money unless it is war reparation sent directly to the Iraqi government through the United Nations.
It's like sorting through debris from a apartment complex fire that killed dozens of people and reporting "Refrigerator Damaged In Apartment Fire". It's moronic.
The entire Iraq dibacle has been a monumental waste of life, time, and money. America is responsible.
Well,I just hope the good old U.S. of A. can recoup the equivalent of all those tax dollars lost/wasted/frittered/tossed away in Iraq - in big bad barrels of oil. Silly me! What was I thinking...
Any professional writers out there? Notice how carefully this article had to be written to avoid naming any actual companies wasting the money given for reconstruction in this contracts?
Wanna give me three guesses to name two of them?
Peach McD in Durham NC
Not only names of Companies but who owns them and if big corporations which funds are investors as well.......
Yeah, I'm asking is it time to wake up yet?
Wonder if the Banker accidently killed in another of todays articles is related to any of this?
The U.S. has been in the business of awarding contracts for far too long to have "significant weaknesses in the government's oversight of the contract". This money was wasted by individuals who knew there would be no recrimination for not living up to the contracts details. Contracts in America have become a joke.
And the "environment that was conducive to waste and inefficiency", that defines the U.S. government's business as usual.
Lemme see, here; If Dick Cheney is still getting "residuals" from Haliburton, you've gotta wonder who's getting a piece of the action from this Parsons Delaware.
Maybe I'll Google them later and see what, if anything, I can come up with.
yep, just business as usual...doesn't even raise much in the way of comment. Nice state we have reached ... but hey, no one got in any trouble when $8 plus billion just disappeared of paper money we sent over....so whats a few million right? Not to mention Antiquities and gold or lives lost on both sides....cause remember
WAR IS HELL!
even if this one seems to bepaying particularly well.
Actually this "contracting fiasco" ISN'T business as usual, if you are taking the long view. Prior to THIS ADMINISTRATION there were checks and balances, procedures and oversight that precluded the occurrence of such abuse. But this administration put political appointees into DECISION MAKING positions that prior to Bush II, had always been occupied by procurement professionals. These political appointees were deliberately empowered to circumvent (i.e. "defy") procurement law, so that "the right people" could get very, very RICH.
It's criminal folks!
Does anyone know what this means? I see it every single time I try to EDIT one of my posts here:
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You aren't allowed to edit this comment, either because you didn't write it or you passed the 30 minute time limit.
This is a serious systemic problem in the US: government contracts.
Many of the contracts that the US, county, city, town, etc. governments have given to private companies have wasted untold billions over the last 200 years.
Usually contracts go to companies that are politically adroit. Of course, there is usually very little oversight.
Eventually, even if there was a public bid for the contract, the cost overruns emerge.
However, it was these contracts that took our tax monies and wasted them on public work projects that had little relation to the long-term needs of the nation, county or local communities.
Actually, many of these projects were actualized by government bodies in the other wealthy industrialized nations.
As a result, these national infrastructures are of higher quality and regularly monitered and reported upon as compared to our country. Of course, these nations' infrastructural assets were done much more cheaply.
Contracting out lucrative government contracts to private firms has usually led to massive corruption, low quality end products and massive cost overruns.
SO!
Is it time to wake up yet?
Yet another audit, yet another year goes by and nobody puts a stop to it.