The taxpayers are supposed to be the boss of this administration. Every administration works for the people, but what happens when the administration deceives their boss? As more conclusive audits are being done on Iraq spending, and the money the Pentagon hands out to mercenary contractors should bring everyone in this country to the conclusion that this administration is corrupt.
Does anyone care that their money has been flushed down a proverbial toilet? This audit of payments to contractors in Iraq shows that nearly all the taxpayer money handed over to contractors did not follow the rules.
A Pentagon audit of $8.2 billion in American taxpayer money spent by the United States Army on contractors in Iraq has found that almost none of the payments followed federal rules and that in some cases, contracts worth millions of dollars were paid for despite little or no record of what, if anything, was received.
The audit also found a sometimes stunning lack of accountability in the way the United States military spent some $1.8 billion in seized or frozen Iraqi assets, which in the early phases of the conflict were often doled out in stacks or pallets of cash. The audit was released Thursday in tandem with a Congressional hearing on the payments.
In one case, according to documents displayed by Pentagon auditors at the hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a cash payment of $320.8 million in Iraqi money was authorized on the basis of a single signature and the words “Iraqi Salary Payment” on an invoice. In another, $11.1 million of taxpayer money was paid to IAP, an American contractor, on the basis of a voucher with no indication of what was delivered.
As a taxpayer, I want these contractors to return the money they took. We all know that won’t happen, though, and for that, these people should be run out of business.
The new report is especially significant because while other federal auditors have severely criticized the way the United States has handled payments to contractors in Iraq, this is the first time that the Pentagon itself has acknowledged the mismanagement on anything resembling this scale.
The disclosure that $1.8 billion in Iraqi assets was mishandled comes on top of an earlier finding by an independent federal oversight agency, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, that United States occupation authorities early in the conflict could not account for the disbursement of $8.8 billion in Iraqi oil money and seized assets.
If you recall, this administration and the gas-bags that have supported the leeching of 98% of the people for this colossal failure tried to shut down the Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Thankfully Duncan Hunter was not able to carry Bush’s water.
Every person involved in issuing checks without supporting documentation should be fired on the spot. Every administration official that turned a blind eye, or encouraged the flushing of our money, should be ousted from Washington faster than we can flush a poopy-filled toilet. And finally, the top dogs that perpetrated this crime against the people should be held accountable — you know, do the crime do the time.
