'Shortfall' : Coalition Fails to Account for Oil Revenues & Cash

[G_j]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3844425.stm

'Failure to account' for Iraq cash


Iraq has some of the world's biggest proven oil reserves
Iraqi money cannot be accounted for by occupying forces responsible for the funds, according to two new reports.

Discrepancies are highlighted in the handling of $20bn (£11bn) generated from Iraq's oil and other sources since war ended last year.

The Coalition Provisional Authority was given responsibility for the country's finances by the United Nations.

The UN stressed that money in the Development Fund for Iraq must be shown to be used in Iraq's best interests.


It was understood that all revenues would be paid into a central fund.

Criticism

But both the charity Christian Aid and the Liberal Democrats are now criticising the CPA, saying no audit of how the money was used had been carried out until April of this year - two months before the handover of power.


..more..

[SoCalDem]

1. Hmmm.. Where I come from, they call that embezzlement and fraud..n/t

:)

[G_j]

2. I heard this story on BBC radio

the woman from Cristian Aid who did this report was VERY critical.
She said they only had a few days to account for the $$ after that they could just let the accounting 'dissappear'.

It looks like the surprise is on us. Those 'two days' don't exist!!

[nodictators]

3. Little wonder that Bush & Blair smiled and shook hands when...

...they learned that the hoax Handover had taken place.

Apparently, many of the CPA records are missing, as planned. Of course, the Network Nazis are completing ignoring the money involved in the Occuparion.

For more on the money angle see Naomi Klein's excellent article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1247867,00.html

The multibillion robbery the US calls reconstruction

The shameless corporate feeding frenzy in Iraq is fuelling the resistance

Naomi Klein
Saturday June 26, 2004
The Guardian

Good news out of Baghdad: the Program Management Office, which oversees the $18.4bn in US reconstruction funds, has finally set a goal it can meet. Sure, electricity is below pre-war levels, the streets are rivers of sewage and more Iraqis have been fired than hired. But now the PMO has contracted the British mercenary firm Aegis to protect its employees from "assassination, kidnapping, injury and" - get this - "embarrassment". I don't know if Aegis will succeed in protecting PMO employees from violent attack, but embarrassment? I'd say mission already accomplished. The people in charge of rebuilding Iraq can't be embarrassed, because, clearly, they have no shame.

In the run-up to the June 30 underhand (sorry, I can't bring myself to call it a "handover"), US occupation powers have been unabashed in their efforts to steal money that is supposed to aid a war-ravaged people. The state department has taken $184m earmarked for drinking water projects and moved it to the budget for the lavish new US embassy in Saddam Hussein's former palace. Short of $1bn for the embassy, Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state, said he might have to "rob from Peter in my fiefdom to pay Paul". In fact, he is robbing Iraq's people, who, according to a recent study by the consumer group Public Citizen, are facing "massive outbreaks of cholera, diarrhoea, nausea and kidney stones" from drinking contaminated water.
<much more>

[G_j]

4. good article, have you seen IraqRevenueWatch.org ?

Klein's article is excellent. She has been keeping a close watch on this all along.

Here is a very useful site for monitoring Iraq's revenue issues.

http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/

[cthrumatrix]

5. note to CBS ...... investigate the fraud, the oil deals in Iraq....our $$

out the window....


Note the lack of interest on the Dems on this issue...what's up with that? They should be running with this issue for the past several months.

Here's a "softball to Kerry"...will he take it or go with the corporate fraud?

[G_j]

6. and it wasn't about oil?

The Coalition Provisional Authority was given responsibility for the country's finances by the United Nations.

That is a sacred trust and responsibility.

Given the US and UK insisted the invasion wasn't about oil, why have they been so remiss in accounting for the oil revenues?

"The Coalition said $10bn (£5.5bn) of the total sum came from oil revenues.

But, according to the Lib Dems, there is a shortfall of up to $3.7bn (£2.03bn) between the amount of oil revenue earned and the money paid into the DFI by the CPA.

Iraq's oil resources generate billions of dollars each year and both studies insist it is not known how that money has been spent.

Helen Collinson, from Christian Aid, said: "For the entire year that the CPA has been in power in Iraq it has been impossible to tell with any accuracy what the CPA has been doing with Iraq's money." "




edit: yes, why aren't the Dems blasting this?
In case anyone is confused, the "Liberal Democrats"
refered to in the article are in the UK.

[cthrumatrix]

7. we can be sure Iraq is not in control of their own finances in this sham

of a handover....oil revenues have never been anlayzed and full disclosure.

[Pow_Wow]

9. the Democrats should be pouncing on this! n-t

[G_j]

8. "NO WAR FOR OIL"

[Don_G]

10. It's "Only" A Few Billion

But where did the rest of the money go????

[Pow_Wow]

11. yikes!

from the Congressional Budget Office.
sick

[Karenina]

12. Not YIKES...

Duh!!!! Siphoning moolah (the physical representation of POWER in today's world) BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY is the M.O. Iraqis, Americans, Grandma Millie scheiß egal. Check it out for yourself. Saddam Hussein (obligatory BAD MAN COMMENT, fill in the blank________) became a SERIOUS THREAT when he converted to the EURO. PLEASE DO CHECK IT OUT, then get back to me. ;-)