Well, it's nice to know that the Bush Administration still loves to drop bad news on Fridays when no one is paying attention. Even better, a holiday weekend when people really aren't paying attention. Anyway, here is the news:
An internal audit of $8.2 billion paid to U.S. and Iraqi contractors found that nearly every transaction failed to comply with federal laws or regulations aimed at preventing fraud.
In some cases, there weren't even basic invoices explaining how the money was spent.
[snip]
The probe said that during a five-year period — from 2001 through 2006 — $7.8 billion in payments skirted billing rules with some violations egregious enough to invite potential fraud.
I've already written about how fraud in Iraq has led our tax dollars to be used to fund the insurgents killing our troops, as well as how the reconstruction auditors were being phased out after some embarrassing findings. This latest revelation, while by far the biggest in terms of dollars, is just another in a horrendous string of incompetence.
Representative Scott Garrett has joined Rep. Jeb Hensarling in calling for a special conference for the House GOP to come up with an action plan to deal with voter's anger. Maybe they can start with trying to explain why it is that every audit looking at the time when Republicans controlled Congress is showing a lack of oversight and graft unparalleled in the history of our nation.
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