A British charity alleges that billions of dollars transferred to a U.S.-controlled account have disappeared. In a report issued Oct. 23 entitled, "Iraq: the missing billions," U.K.-based Christian Aid reveals that the fate of $4 out of $5 billion transferred to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)'s Defense Fund for Iraq (DFI) remains unknown.
The only funds accounted for appear to be about $1 billion in pre-war funds transferred from the U.N. Oil for Food Program. However, the CPA has not disclosed the fate of $2.5 billion in seized state assets and $1.5 billion from oil revenues handed over to the Development Fund for Iraq and held in the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.
"We have absolutely no idea how the money [from Iraqi oil revenues] has been spent," an unnamed U.N. diplomat told Christian Aid in October. "We know that more than $1 billion has already been transferred from the U.N. escrow Oil-for-Food account and we don’t know how this money has been spent, and this is Iraqi money. ... I wish I knew, but we just don't know. We have absolutely no idea..."
At issue is the CPA's failure to adhere to the U.N. Security Council's Resolution 1483. Ratified in May, the resolution requires that the DFI be "managed in a transparent manner for and on behalf of the Iraqi people."
According to Christian Aid, the Program Review Board responsible for allocating DFI funds has failed to meet its requirements to publish and disseminate funding plans in Arabic, as well as publish the minutes of all its formal sessions. The charity notes its own requests for an overview of the fund’s finances have received no response.
More crucially, the CPA has stymied the work of the International Advisory Monitoring Board (IAMB), a group with four international voting members (representatives from the U.N., International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Arab Fund for Social Development) charged with oversight of DFI funds.
Under Resolution 1483, the IAMB is responsible for guaranteeing the fund's transparency as well as its integrity. It is also obliged to observe CPA's activities for the Security Council.
Charity Aid's U.N. source said that the CPA "was attempting to limit the authority of the IAMB" by curtailing members' responsibilities to monitoring CPA-selected auditors, "without the power to more closely examine how funds were being used or accounted for."
The CPA has denied misusing the $4 billion dollars, and that the money will be accounted for. Regardless, spending any DFI money without accountability to date means that the CPA "has been effectively operating outside its mandate," stated Christian Aid.
"We have absolutely no idea how the money [from Iraqi oil revenues] has been spent," an unnamed U.N. diplomat told Christian Aid in October. "We know that more than $1 billion has already been transferred from the U.N. escrow Oil-for-Food account and we don’t know how this money has been spent, and this is Iraqi money. ... I wish I knew, but we just don't know. We have absolutely no idea..."
At issue is the CPA's failure to adhere to the U.N. Security Council's Resolution 1483. Ratified in May, the resolution requires that the DFI be "managed in a transparent manner for and on behalf of the Iraqi people."
According to Christian Aid, the Program Review Board responsible for allocating DFI funds has failed to meet its requirements to publish and disseminate funding plans in Arabic, as well as publish the minutes of all its formal sessions. The charity notes its own requests for an overview of the fund’s finances have received no response.
More crucially, the CPA has stymied the work of the International Advisory Monitoring Board (IAMB), a group with four international voting members (representatives from the U.N., International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Arab Fund for Social Development) charged with oversight of DFI funds.
Under Resolution 1483, the IAMB is responsible for guaranteeing the fund's transparency as well as its integrity. It is also obliged to observe CPA's activities for the Security Council.
Charity Aid's U.N. source said that the CPA "was attempting to limit the authority of the IAMB" by curtailing members' responsibilities to monitoring CPA-selected auditors, "without the power to more closely examine how funds were being used or accounted for."
The CPA has denied misusing the $4 billion dollars, and that the money will be accounted for. Regardless, spending any DFI money without accountability to date means that the CPA "has been effectively operating outside its mandate," stated Christian Aid.
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Where is all the money going?
16.11.2003 13:26
The $87 billion bill currently winding its way through the Senate--without much friction, unfortunately--contains a lot of pork. Three-quarters of the money will be spent on the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. About $20 billion is earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction, but even those funds contain a lot of waste. Some of the more dubious expenses include:
--$100 million for a witness protection program that will serve 100 people. That's $1 million per person to relocate them overseas and find them jobs.
--$100 million to hire 500 people to investigate Saddam Hussein's crimes against humanity. Never mind that the US military could have seized all the incriminating Iraqi government documents that it wanted way back in April, but instead let looters and saboteurs burn Iraq's government buildings. It's a little late now to sift through all those ashes. And expensive, apparently.
--$99 million to build 26 jails and prisons, at a cost of about $3.8 million apiece. Someone in the Bush administration is expecting the guerrilla war and lawlessness in Iraq to drag on for a really long time.
--$9 million to "modernize" Iraq's postal system by, among other things, assigning zip codes to the country. Okay, zip codes are important, but why $9 million just to generate a few numbers?
--$55 million for an oil pipeline repair team...which will consist of retired NBA All-stars, it seems.
--$100 to build a housing complex for 3,500 people. An Iraqi contractor has said that he could build the complex for about $10 million.
--$150 million to build one--yes, just ONE--children's hospital in the city of Basra.
--$35 million for on-the-job training for private businesses. Yes, you read that correctly: private businesses.
--$40 million for computer training classes, at $333 per month per course. Such classes cost less than half that amount at community colleges here in the US.
--$3.6 million for 600 radios and phones, at $6,000 each.
Other fripperies include a $10,000-per-month business school that will be twice as expensive as attending Harvard Business School and a fleet of $33,000 pickup trucks (which are probably meant for the All-star oil pipeline repair team).
These are just a few of the details. Many portions of the bill are so vague, and many line items so large that it's very difficult to tell what the money will spent on. For example, $130 million will go for building 10 irrigation and drainage projects, with no details of what technology will be used, how much money will be spent for labor versus equipment, and whether any funds will be allocated for ongoing maintenance. The same is jjhbtrue for the $2.9 billion allocated for rebuilding Iraq's electrical system and the $1 billion for a new drinking-water system.
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