That's what Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), thinks. He thinks Iraq is more dangerous now than it was a year ago. June was the deadliest month for our troops in two years. There seems to be more 'action' in the Green Zone than previously. Diyala Province is "very unstable". A few other tidbits from the 172-page report:
He doesn't come right out and say it but the police training program does not appear to have the necessary resources. There are 200 'advisers' and 400,000 policemen distributed over ten provinces.
There appears to be a problem between the Dept. of State and SIGIR. State feels Bowen is butting into areas for which he is not authorized; Bowen disagrees.
One area for which SIGIR is authorized and is quite capable is corruption and fraud. He found a fair amount in the practices of Anham, LLC, our leading contractor in Iraq now; they have a $3.9 billion deal. SIGIR's auditors couldn't get answers with regard to 40% of the items they reviewed. Some of the questions concerned amounts billed to the U.S. by Anham, such as
• $900 for a control switch valued at $7.05 (a 12,666% difference)
• $80 for a small segment of drain pipe valued at $1.41 (a 5,574% difference)
• $75 for a different piece of plumbing equipment also valued at $1.41 (a 5,219% difference)
• $3,000 for a circuit breaker valued at $94.47 (a 3,076% difference)
• $4,500 for another kind of circuit breaker valued at $183.30 (a 2,355% difference).
One area for which SIGIR is authorized and is quite capable is corruption and fraud. He found a fair amount in the practices of Anham, LLC, our leading contractor in Iraq now; they have a $3.9 billion deal. SIGIR's auditors couldn't get answers with regard to 40% of the items they reviewed. Some of the questions concerned amounts billed to the U.S. by Anham, such as
• $900 for a control switch valued at $7.05 (a 12,666% difference)
• $80 for a small segment of drain pipe valued at $1.41 (a 5,574% difference)
• $75 for a different piece of plumbing equipment also valued at $1.41 (a 5,219% difference)
• $3,000 for a circuit breaker valued at $94.47 (a 3,076% difference)
• $4,500 for another kind of circuit breaker valued at $183.30 (a 2,355% difference).
The auditors also found problems with regard to funds not being spent on what the funds were authorized for. Training for people monitoring contracts was inadequate.
Thus far, SIGIR has been responsible for the indictment of 64 people, 54 of whom have been convicted. Not a bad ratio.
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