Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 26. Juli 2005 / Time Line July 26, 2005
Version 3.007/26/2005
Digging In : Former Bush Aide Turns Tough Critic As Iraq
Inspector Mr. Bowen Finds Poor Controls, Waste in Reconstruction;
Seeking Missing Millions : Harsh Rebuke From Bremer
By Yochi J. Dreazen, the Wall Street Journal
During a routine audit last summer of an American office in charge
of doling out reconstruction funding in Hillah, Iraq, U.S.
government investigators made a series of startling
discoveries.
The office had paid a contractor twice for the same work. A U.S.
official was allowed to handle millions of dollars in cash weeks
after he was fired for incompetence. Of the $119.9 million
allocated for regional projects, $89.4 million was disbursed
without contracts or other documentation. An additional $7.2
million couldn't be found at all. To many officials in both Baghdad
and Washington, the only thing more surprising than the problems
was the identity of the man who had uncovered them: Stuart Bowen,
the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
Mr. Bowen is a Texas lawyer who parlayed a job on George W. Bush's
first gubernatorial campaign into senior posts in Austin and
Washington. He began the Iraq war lobbying for an American
contractor seeking tens of millions of dollars in reconstruction
work. Last October, California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman singled
him out in a report on "The Politicization of Inspectors General"
in the Bush administration. The report suggested that such auditors
wouldn't be "independent and objective."
Instead, Mr. Bowen has become one of the most prominent and
credible critics of how the administration has handled the
occupation of Iraq. In a series of blistering public reports, he
has detailed systemic management failings, lax or nonexistent
oversight, and apparent fraud and embezzlement on the part of the
U.S. officials charged with administering the rebuilding efforts.
White House officials declined to comment on Mr. Bowen...
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