From The Asia Times
By Emad Mekay

Tens of millions of dollars originally slated for the reconstruction and security of Iraq have been squandered on luxury items such as an Olympic-sized swimming pool, exclusive trailers, and buildings that were never or rarely used, a US government watchdog says.

In eight new audits carried out over the past quarter alone, US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) Stuart Bowen indicated that “corruption continues to plague Iraq” and that “the security environment has continued to deteriorate”.

The audits, submitted to Congress on Wednesday, reviewed US efforts to support the capacity development of Iraq’s ministries, as well as the State Department’s management of funding for Iraqi police training, a study of medical equipment purchased to support the primary health-care centers, and a statistical summary of security costs for major US contractors in Iraq.

Among the examples of waste documented in the 579-page report is that as part of a contract awarded to DynCorp International between July 2004 and June 2006, the State Department paid US$43.8 million for manufacturing and temporary storage of a residential camp that has never been used.

That sum included $4.2 million for unauthorized work that included relocating the residential camp to outside of the Adnan Palace grounds, building an additional 20 trailers for “very important people” and constructing an Olympic-size swimming pool on the palace grounds.

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