Our troops may have finally pulled out of Iraq, but that doesn’t mean the end of our troubles in the nation. Audits from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an agency created to oversee rebuilding in Iraq, states that the U.S. Defense Departmentcan’t account for $2 billion given to Iraq projects and that they have not provided Iraq with a complete list of projects funded by the U.S.
However, it’s not likely that the missing funds have been misplaced or stolen. The audits indicate that records tracking payments and expenses went missing, particularly during the start of the Iraq war, when government was understandably unstable and less concerned with records.
The inspector general also lays blame for discrepancies on the U.S. government, who only reported projects to Iraq that cost more than $250,000. Designed to help focus the country’s limited resources on key U.S.-backed projects, the inspector general stated that it made Iraq’s reconstruction planning more complicated and ignored less expensive projects that might still be more important to the country.
For more information on this issue, check out this CNN article.
– Benjamin Nanamaker, InvestorPlace Money & Politics Editor
The opinions contained in this column are solely those of the writer.
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