International Relations and Security Network ISN - Security Watch
At a Senate hearing on Monday, Democratic senators accused the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which ran Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, of having wasted millions of dollars. Former CPA official Franklin Willis testified to widespread abuse and waste of money at the authority, and presented photographs of himself and other US officials holding bundles of US$100 bank notes - totaling US$2 million - wrapped in plastic. He said the bundles of cash had been used to pay a security contractor. “A combination of inexperienced officials, fear of decision-making, lack of communications, minimal security, no banks, and lots of money to spend" led to Wild West-style chaos, Willis said. Allegations of overcharging and fraud were also made at the hearing. At the end of January, an inspector-general's report concluded that the CPA had transferred nearly US$9 billion to the interim Iraqi government without any accounting controls.
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