UN set to issue damning report into US Iraq spending

A UN panel critical of how the US-led coalition authority in Iraq spent billions of dollars from the UN oil-for-food program and other sales of Iraqi oil will issue its report on Monday, an official with the world body said.

The UN Security Council set up the Iraqi Development Fund to help the US Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administer Iraq.

The CPA administered Iraq from March 20, 2003, invasion to its dissolution June 28, 2004, when it handed the reins to the Iraqi interim government.

The development fund consisted of money from CPA sales of Iraqi oil, millions of dollars remaining from the UN Iraqi oil-for-food program and Iraqi assets that were dispersed worldwide.

A panel created by the Security Council – the International Advisory and Monitoring Board for Iraq – has accused the CPA of poorly managing Iraqi money and failing to stem corruption quickly enough.

In all, the CPA said it spent $20bn (€15bn) from the Iraq Development Fund, and little from an $18.4bn (€13.8bn) allocation from Congress.

The auditing panel also said the CPA gave $1.8bn (€1.35bn) to Halliburton, a Houston-based oil services conglomerate, in no-bid contracts.

It also said the ruling coalition authority was unable to track the money coming in or going out.

The oil-for-food program, instituted to help Iraqis cope with sanctions, began in December 1996 and ended in November.

In the program’s seven years, Iraq exported $65bn (€48bn) of oil and some $46bn (€34bn) of that revenue went to the oil-for-food program.

Saddam Hussein’s government determined which goods it would buy, who would provide them and who could buy Iraqi oil.