From AP<\/a>:<\/p>\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2013 After years of following the paper trail of $51 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars provided to rebuild a broken Iraq, the U.S. government can say with certainty that too much was wasted. But it can\u2019t say how much.<\/p>\n
In what it called its final audit report, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Funds on Friday spelled out a range of accounting weaknesses that put \u201cbillions of American taxpayer dollars at risk of waste and misappropriation\u201d in the largest reconstruction project of its kind in U.S. history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe precise amount lost to fraud and waste can never be known,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
The auditors found huge problems accounting for the huge sums, but one small example of failure stood out: A contractor got away with charging $80 for a pipe fitting that its competitor was selling for $1.41. Why? The company\u2019s billing documents were reviewed sloppily by U.S. contracting officers or were not reviewed at all.<\/p>\n
With dry understatement, the inspector general said that while he couldn\u2019t pinpoint the amount wasted, it \u201ccould be substantial.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Asked why the exact amount squandered can never be determined, the inspector general\u2019s office referred The Associated Press to a report it did in February 2009 titled \u201cHard Lessons,\u201d in which it said the auditors \u2013 much like the reconstruction managers themselves \u2013 faced personnel shortages and other hazards.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the vicissitudes of the reconstruction effort \u2013 which was dogged from the start by persistent violence, shifting goals, constantly changing contracting practices and undermined by a lack of unity of effort \u2013 a complete accounting of all reconstruction expenditures is impossible to achieve,\u201d the report concluded.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Robert Burns can be followed on Twitter at http:\/\/twitter.com\/robertburnsAP<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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