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Auditors Can't Account for Iraq Spent Funds

The audit was performed by the accounting firm KMPG for the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, created by the United Nations to monitor the stewardship of Iraqi funds.

The report monitored spending by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-run governing agency which went out of existence in June; Iraqi ministries; the Kurdish Regional Government and Iraqi provisional governments. It covered the period from January to June this year.

In the CPA programs, "We found 37 cases where contracting files could not be located," the auditors said. The cost of the contracts: $185 million. In another 52 cases, there was no record of the goods received for $87.9 million in expenditures.

The Report and Fact Sheet are posted at the website of the Committee on Government Reform , Minority Office where Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) is the Ranking Minority Member. Information is posted under the section titled Problems Found in Bush Administration Management of Iraqi Funds

A new audit by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board finds that the Bush Administration has not properly accounted for the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi oil proceeds.

The Fact Sheet (PDF) is 4 pages long, and is broken down into sections:

CPA-Administered Projects
Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP)
Iraqi Ministries
Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)
Iraqi Provincial Governments

The Development Fund for Iraq: Report of Factual Findings in Connection with Disbursements (PDF) is 28 pages long.

A sample of the report from page 17 under the section Projects administered by the CPA:

We found 34 cases where disbursements and advance payments had been made to the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for import of petroleum products ($983,704,969), restoration of oil infrastructure ($67,573,813), restoration of Iraqi electricity ($606,739,525) and other projects ($41,482,614).

We noted that disbursements to the USACE were authorized by the PRB and approved by the CPA Administrator, under a series of Memoranda of Understanding (MoU). Under these MoU the USACE utilized DFI funds for new work approved by the CPA Administrator. We were informed by the USACE that the contract vehicle was several task orders added to existing contracts that had been openly competed well before the start of the CPA and also issued new contracts.

We had limited access to contracting procedures and documentation for contracts awarded by the USACE. However, we were informed by the USACE that their contracts were awarded with limited competition from the largest US construction companies. In one case, we were provided with written justification for the limited competition on the electricity contracts.

We noted that two contracts related to the restoration of oil infrastructure were transferred from the USACE to the Project Management Office, a US Government agency.

A second sample from page 22 under the section Commanders Emergency Response Program :

For our sample of CERP disbursements tested, we found adequate supporting documentation for goods received or evidencing services rendered, except for the following deviations:

We found 142 cases where we were unable to obtain receiving reports or other supporting documentation evidencing services received for payments made ($39,957,782).

Quick summary: No one really knows where a nice chunk of the money went.