Democrats pledge to raise issue of Iraq waste, mismanagement

The Senate Appropriations Committee heard testimony Tuesday on waste and corruption in Iraq, an issue committee Democrats suggested will be a talking point in upcoming debate over the Bush administration's request for $102.5 billion in fiscal 2008 supplemental funds for the war. Calling the committee "the only regulator on the spigot this administration opened in 2003 to flood Iraq with billions" of dollars, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., pledged to put "a strong hand on that spigot" when considering the emergency war funding request.

Testimony on U.S. contracting problems and corruption at Iraq ministries from Comptroller General David Walker, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen, Defense Department Inspector General Claude Kicklighter and Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, Iraq's former commissioner on public integrity, mostly followed statements they gave at earlier hearings.

But the appropriators suggested they would use the information to fight Bush's supplemental request, which is unlikely to reach the Senate floor until May at the earliest. "If we ask for billions of dollars a year, at some point [the Iraqis] ought to be doing more themselves," Leahy said, citing lack of funding for domestic programs. "It is the greatest fraud and abuse in American history," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to cheers from "Code Pink" anti-war protestors. "There ought to be a dozen or two dozen hearings ...because I think we have been cheated."

In what was scheduled to be his penultimate appearance before Congress as comptroller general, Walker offered the senators support, questioning U.S spending in light of domestic budget problems. "Iraqis have a budget surplus; we have a budget deficit," he said. "The question is who should be paying." Walker noted that, last year, many Iraqi ministries spent less than 10 percent of their budgets. While the wide-ranging hearing addressed cases of fraud by U.S. officials, both Bowen and Walker said waste caused by mismanagement is a far bigger problem.

"Bad business practices ... have negatively affected reconstruction and support efforts," said Walker. He cited GAO's finding last summer that the Defense Department completed negotiations on task orders on an oil contract six months after work started. That left the department unable to collect most of $221 million in costs questioned by auditors. Testifying about rampant corruption in Iraqi ministries, al-Radhi said some money stolen by Iraqi officials is funding insurgent groups.