Auditors: Billions squandered in Iraq

From the AP via Yahoo courtesy of AlterNet:

About $10 billion has been squandered by the U.S. government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned Thursday that significantly more taxpayer money is at risk.

The three top auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for shoddy work or work never done.

More than one in six dollars charged by U.S. contractors were questionable or unsupported, nearly triple the amount of waste the Government Accountability Office estimated last fall.

"There is no accountability," said David M. Walker, who heads the auditing arm of Congress. "Organizations charged with overseeing contracts are not held accountable. Contractors are not held accountable. The individuals responsible are not held accountable."

"People should be rewarded when they do a good job. But when things don't go right, there have to be consequences," he said.

And

Of the $10 billion in overpriced contracts or undocumented costs, more than $2.7 billion were charged by Halliburton Co., the oil-field services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

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I remember back in '03 my bitching to a conservative friend about the no-bid contract awarded to Cheney's old pals, and how it had to be some kind of corruption. But my buddy was unconcerned. He told me that Halliburton was one of only a very few firms that had the capability to do what the government needed them to do. I had no response, so I shut up.

If I knew then what we know now.

Ten billion dollars. Man, that's just insane. And if it had happened under Clinton, you just know he'd have been impeached for it. And, bloody Christ, it's the financially responsible Republicans who have pissed all this money away. I just don't get it. Bush couldn't have done this by himself; he needed the formerly GOP dominated Congress to watch his back, which they did, but it goes utterly counter to everything they say they're about.

But, then, why am I surprised? Even Republicans are p.o'd about this shit now. So, once again, I ask what does the word "conservative" mean these days?

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