Washington Post
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. official overseeing Iraq reconstruction funding -- whose recent audits have detailed a wide gap between the promise and result of rebuilding efforts and disclose rampant corruption and mismanagement -- said in a report to be published today that officials had made significant strides toward providing essential services to Iraqis.
"Despite certain setbacks, chiefly caused by security problems, the overall picture conveys a sense of substantial progress in the relief, recovery and reconstruction of Iraq," Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in his latest quarterly report.
Across Iraq, key areas of infrastructure -- such as water and sewage, the oil industry and electricity -- currently operate at or below prewar levels, according to U.S. officials in Baghdad and previous audits by Bowen's office.
Bowen acknowledged in an interview that three years of reconstruction projects -- paid for largely by more than $18 billion in U.S. funding, most of which has been spent -- had "been punctuated by shortfalls and deficiencies."
But citing Defense Department statistics that showed a 60 percent decline in attacks on Iraqi infrastructure and other facilities in the period since January, he added that "the United States in Iraq is beginning to see the payoff in its investment in security."
The report coincided with the release of an audit that said efforts to protect oil and electrical infrastructure "ultimately proved to be unsuccessful," despite $147 million spent to train more than 20,000 Iraqis to guard pipelines and power plants.
"The lack of records and equipment accountability raises significant concerns about possible fraud, waste and abuse of Task Force Shield program by U.S. and Iraqi officials," Bowen's audit concluded. It also found indications of fraud that it said are under investigation.
Developments in Iraq
• Iraqi President Jalal Talabani met with representatives of seven armed groups and is optimistic they may agree to lay down their weapons, his office said Sunday.
• The first all-Sunni class of 978 Iraqi army recruits finished its basic training Sunday.
• At least 12 people, including two children, died Sunday in bombings and drive-by shootings nationwide, and the bodies of seven others, all males, were found in three areas of Baghdad. The bodies were bound and showed signs of torture.
associated press