Show Me The Money

Crikey. Bad day ahead for Bremer.

The U.S.-run body governing Iraq has failed to account for billions of dollars allocated for rebuilding the country, a prominent British aid group said today.

Christian Aid said in its report that the Coalition Provisional Authority had only explained publicly how it had spent $1 billion (U.S.) of the $5 billion in Iraqi funds it has been given for the country's redevelopment.

[...]

The funds in question are administered by the Development Fund for Iraq, set up to allow Iraq's new administrators to acquire frozen Iraqi assets and oil revenue for the reconstruction of the country and approved by a United Nations resolution in May. The fund receives 95 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of Iraqi oil.

But the group said the money taken in so far had not been properly accounted for. The report said the board overseeing the fund had not, as required, published funding plans in Arabic, while an international monitoring board called for by the UN resolution has yet to be set up.

Um, the monitoring board hasn't been set up yet and the purchase orders aren't even being written in the native tongue? Wait... didn't we win this war 6 months ago?

Go download (PDF) the Christian Aid Report here. It does not mince words.

As an end note to this post, however, may I direct your attention to endnote #1 of the report.