Guardian report: Concern of misspending of 20 billion dollars of Iraqi aid
Iraq-USA, Economics, 11/15/2003

The UK Guardian reported yesterday in a report about the US aid to Iraq and the way it is being spent that "We have a sort of 'obligate-it-and-forget-it' approach to a lot of this,'" according to Anthony Cordesman, a former State and Defense Department official "who just returned from a visit to Iraq with a firsthand assessment of the reconstruction."

The Guardian said "Among the problems, according to Cordesman: The United States does not effectively monitor Iraqi perceptions of the reconstruction, nor has it properly assessed what rebuilding jobs need to be done first. Also there are not enough experienced experts in the country to ensure the work gets done correctly."

The Guardian quoted Cordesman saying "It is always wasteful to half-fix something, or to design a system which really isn't all that good and doesn't meet international standards. But, if you need something now, you may be better off with the mediocre rather than the good .. Either trade-off I don't see being made very well.''

The Guardian report quoted Lloyd J. Dumas, an economist at the University of Texas in Dallas saying " The Iraqis say they are concerned that this money will be mismanaged - for example, they have complained that it was unnecessary to train 35,000 Iraqi police in nearby Jordan at a cost of $1.2 billion ...The Iraqis said we could have done it much cheaper in Iraq. The French and the Germans offered to do it for nothing...We're spending money in Iraq like drunken sailors. We're trying to create a democracy in Iraq, we're trying to create a competitive economy. We have to use a process that is competitive and open. That's not what we've been doing.''

Previous Stories:
  First killed Polish in Iraq, two US killed, detentions of families of the resistance people, US rotates forces   (11/8/2003)
  Two American soldiers killed, a judge assassinated in Musil   (11/5/2003)
  U.S. Congress approves $87.5 Billion for Iraq   (11/1/2003)
  Bremer asks Congress for 1.2 billion for fixing the oil industry   (7/11/2003)

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