[Mb-civic] Incompetence, corruption!

[Jef Bek]

CNN

Minister: $1bn plundered in Iraq

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Large-scale corruption in Iraq's ministries,
particularly the defense ministry, has led to one of the biggest thefts in
history with more than $1 billion going missing, Iraq's finance minister
said in an interview.

"Huge amounts of money have disappeared. In return we got nothing but scraps
of metal," Finance Minister Ali Allawi told British newspaper The
Independent in a report published on Monday. "It is possibly one of the
largest thefts in history."

Corruption, both in the bidding for and the awarding of contracts, and in
the administration of public offices, is one of the most frequent
accusations made by Iraqis against their government and foreign firms
operating in the country.

Some of the worst allegations of impropriety concern the purchasing of
military equipment by the defense ministry under the previous government,
including more than $230 million spent on 28-year-old second-hand Polish
helicopters.

"If you compare the amount that was allegedly stolen of about $1 billion
compared with the budget of the ministry of defense, it is nearly 100
percent of the ministry's (procurement) budget that has gone (missing),"
Allawi said.

Most of the questionable contracts are said to have been signed under the
previous government, headed by Iyad Allawi, which served from June 28, 2004
until late February this year.

The former defense minister, Hazim Shaalan, is now living as a private
citizen in Jordan. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Allawi, the finance minister, was also quoted by the newspaper as saying
$500-$600 million had vanished from the electricity, transport, interior and
other ministries.

The newspaper reported that the total amount missing from all the ministries
could be as much as $2 billion.

Iraq's Board of Supreme Audit, set up in 2004 by the U.S. administration
then running the country, said in February it would investigate all
government contracts signed since the 2003 war after repeated allegations of
corruption. It gave a report to the government in May.

Parts of the board's findings were quoted last month by Knight Ridder
newspapers as showing that upwards of $1 billion had gone missing or was
unaccounted for.

Knight Ridder said that in some cases contracts had been signed on scrap
pieces of paper with unnamed intermediaries and that it was not always clear
what products were supposed to be supplied for the vast sums of money
quoted.

The Independent said that one contract involved purchasing armored cars that
were so poorly made that their armor could be pierced by a single shot from
an AK-47 assault rifle.

An Iraqi politician on Sunday accused the ministries of mass corruption and
incompetence and quoted from the Board of Supreme Audit's report, which has
not been made public.

"Our funds are under the control of ignorant people," Hadi al-Amiri, the
head of parliament's integrity commission, told lawmakers in an angry
address.

"There have been many violations of the bidding process that have led to
huge losses of public funds. Many bids weren't properly conducted and were
awarded by ministers without any input from committees set up to assess the
bids," he said.