us like saddam with money

Report catalogues more Iraq reconstruction failures

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Just three months after Iraq's provisional government paid more than $660,000 for renovation of the Al Hillal General Hospital, an elevator that should have been replaced crashed, killing three people. ... The 42-page report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found problems with 907 contracts and over 1,200 micro-purchase contracts totaling $88.1 million. ...Cash was stolen during insurgent raids, but not reported as such; one U.S. military assistant gambled away $40,000 while accompanying the Iraqi Olympic team to the Philippines; and tens of millions of dollars went into and out of the region's cash vault with no record-keeping whatsoever, it found. ....Officials also paid for ammunition and weapons to be used by personnel working for the reconstruction effort, but didn't keep detailed records on who received the weapons,... Another project, a $473,000 contract to install Internet service in Ramadi, was canceled because officials realized they could not oversee it, despite payments to the contractor. ... many cases of lack of oversight over cash, noting that one contracting officer kept $2 million in cash in a safe in his office bathroom, while a paying agent stashed $678,000 in an unlocked footlocker in his office. ... and that the U.S. ambassador to Iraq take steps to recover more than $571,000 that was overpaid on at least 11 contracts.