U.S. audit report finds spending on security firms, corruption main obstacles for reconstruction

BAGHDAD/IraqiNews.com: Violence levels in Iraq have receded to its lowest in four years and corruption is the main obstacle for reconstruction in war-weary country, a U.S. government audit published lately shows. A report by the U.S. special inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, found that nearly $ 6 billion was spent on private bodyguard, a U.S. government audit published on Friday. A dollar in eight of the $48 billion paid out by U.S. taxpayers to rebuild Iraq since the 2003 invasion was spent on private bodyguards. “The security costs went largely unnoticed because there was no requirement that government agencies keep tabs on them,” the report noted. “Because there was no requirement to track these costs, it was not completely clear for several years that security costs were consuming large portions of reconstruction budgets,” the report said “it was now clear these costs were extremely high,” it highlighted. The U.S. government signed $ 5.3 billion in contracts with 77 different firms to provide security for projects. Another $662 million was committed to 233 for “security services that could be for guards or escort but the descriptions of work were so general that they could be for other services such as providing information technology security”. “Reconstruction projects in Iraq have been slow to deliver. Five years after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, most Iraqis still live without a reliable electricity supply. Many survive without access to clean water or sanitation,” the report stressed. The report recommended government departments develop a process for “routinely capturing financial information for all contracts and subcontracts for private security services”. It also suggested programme managers “should think carefully about a project’s security costs, weighed against its benefits”. AM(S) 1