So say the auditors of the contractors in Iraq.
The U.S. government is at risk of squandering significantly more money in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has already wasted, overcharged or poorly tracked $10 billion in taxpayer money, federal investigators said Thursday.
[…]
“According to the Pentagon auditors, more than one in six dollars they have audited in Iraq is suspect,” [Panel chairman Rep. Henry] Waxman said.
$10 billion ain’t no chump change. It is ridiculous that this has been going on so long. Part of the reason it has is because there have been no consequences and because of cronyism.
Of the $10 billion in overpriced contracts or undocumented costs, more than $2.7 billion were charged by Halliburton Co., the oil-field services firm once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Things are about to change, though.
Senate Democrats…quickly moved to introduce legislation Thursday to stiffen punishment for war profiteers and cut down on cronyism in contracting.
The bill…would impose penalties of up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million for war profiteering and restore a rule that prohibits awarding federal contracts to companies exhibiting a pattern of breaking the law in performance of government contracts.
That rule, put in place by President Clinton, was dropped by the Bush administration upon taking office, Dorgan said.
I can’t think of a single valid reason for the Bush administration to have dropped the rule. The American taxpayers have been ripped off long enough by Bush & Co.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Sounds like a no brainer to me
And where is there not government waste?
Thanks for making the point government should be small and harmless.
Another way of saying it is that government should be smart and efficient. Getting rid of that pesky red tape about making sure that government contractors don’t break rules and steal millions didn’t end up protecting your tax dollars with free-market ingenuity, did it?
$10 Billion wasted must be Bush’s definition of “significant progress,” “new way forward,” and “stay the course.” LOL!
Only 10 billion? Actually, that seems pretty good. Considering that Iraq can be a hostile environment, the language barriers, and the fact we have little experience administering such programs, what would you expect? What would be a reasonable number indicating good management? Have you compared the 10 billion dollars with the waste, fraud and abuse with Medicare, a mature government program?
Consider also that the auditor’s accusations of impropriety may be overstated. In addition, much of the money could be recovered. Of course, none of that will get the big headlines.
It is simply amazing that any citizen could find this acceptable. The disappearance of billions of dollars is no small matter and is the direct result of putting ideologues in charge of this “war” instead of people with experience in dealing with post-war economies and cultures.
Frugal Revolutionary – I do not find it acceptable. Instead, I think it unavoidable. Are you perfect? Do you spend your money perfectly?
There is always a tradeoff. If our government spends trillions, billions will be wasted. At a certain point, to ensure every dollar is spent honestly and appropriately, it costs more than it is worth. In fact, after a certain point, the effort to spend every dollar honestly and appropriately gets in the way of why we wanted to spend our money in the first place.
We are not gods. We should strive for perfection, but to live we must accept a certain amount of imperfection. If we are to live frugally, we have no other choice.
This type of war profiteering is “unavoidable” as long as you’re willing to accept mediocre performance. Not to mention making a few bucks off the “war”.