By JAMES GLANZ and ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: October 25, 2007
BAGHDAD, Oct. 24 — An American project to replace the Iraqi government’s opaque and easily manipulated Saddam Hussein-era accounting system has failed to achieve its goals after four years and more than $38 million, an American oversight agency reported Wednesday.
An early objective of the American occupation was to streamline the corrupt Iraqi bureaucracy that had flourished under Mr. Hussein, and establish controls that would make it more difficult to divert the enormous Iraqi oil revenues that provide nearly all of the government’s budget.
But the American oversight agency, called the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, said Wednesday in a report that the system the United States had chosen had shown a “lack of understanding of the existing Iraq financial and business processes,” and had not taken root.
As a result, the new system has had little impact on Iraq’s financial apparatus, said Ginger Cruz, a deputy inspector general in the office. The old system remains in place, she said.
more By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The U.S. spent at least $38 million to give Iraq's government a computerized accounting system — and no one noticed when it was not working for a month, a report said Wednesday.
more By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
Tue Oct 23, 11:52 AM ET
WASHINGTON - The State Department so badly managed a $1.2 billion contract for Iraqi police training that it can't tell what it got for the money spent, a new report says.
Because of disarray in invoices and records on the project — and because the government is trying to recoup money paid inappropriately to contractor DynCorp International, LLC — auditors have temporarily suspended their effort to review the contract's implementation, said Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart W. Bowen Jr.
Bowen had been trying to review a February 2004 contract to DynCorp awarded by the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). The company was to provide housing, food, security, facilities, training support, law enforcement staff with various specialties as well as weapons and armor for personnel assigned to the program.
"I guess it's a familiar theme," Bowen said Monday, in that problems have previously been documented with both DynCorp and the agency overseeing the contract.