# Coalition Provisional Authority can't account for $8.8 billion in Iraqi oil revenue **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 11, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115 "2005-03-11T23:45:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/1 "2005-03-11T23:45:08Z")
From [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file\_on\_4/4216853.stm:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file_on_4/4216853.stm:) > [@](#): > > Almost $9bn (£4.7bn) of Iraqi oil revenue is missing from a fund set up to reconstruct the country. > > The BBC’s File On 4 programme has learnt that out of over $20bn raised in oil revenues during US-led rule, the use of $8.8bn is unaccounted for. > > US government auditors criticise the Coalition Provisional Authority for failing to manage the money properly. > > In one case, auditors say the key to a safe holding millions of dollars was kept in an open backpack in an office. > > “There was insufficient internal control to assure that money was spent for the benefit of the Iraqis, as the UN Security Council resolution mandated,” said the auditors’ chief of staff, Ms Ginger Cruz. Whoops! Issues for debate: 1. What happened to the money? Who ultimately got it? 2. What’s this going to cost the United States? This money was supposed to be put back into the reconstruction of Iraq. Is our government going to have to make up the shortfall, if we still want to get the job done? 3. Whose fault is this? What went wrong, and who could have prevented it? 4. Separate but related question: Who can, or will, be held accountable? The CPA no longer exists, having been officially dissolved on 6/28/04. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition\_Provisional\_Authority](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_Provisional_Authority) The picture is further muddied by the CPA’s ambiguous legal status. It was run by U.S. presidential appointees, yet it might or might not have been an agency of the U.S. government. Even Congress doesn’t know. We’ve been discussing that in this GD thread: “Iraq contractor Custer Battles sued for fraud. Defense: CPA never existed!” – [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=304863](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=304863) “A holding company is a thing where you hand an accomplice the goods while the policeman searches you.” – Will Rogers ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/2 "2005-03-11T23:52:27Z")
Do you (or does anyone else) have a link to the actual report? It talks about “US auditors” but doesn’t say for which department. They have an official apparently talking about it on the record; surely this means that at least an abstract is public. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/3 "2005-03-11T23:53:44Z")
It’s hard to overestimate the difficulty anybody dealing with this money must face. Every drive from home to work is a kidnap risk. Running an office with daily power cuts can’t be easy. > [@](#): > > In one case, auditors say the key to a safe holding millions of dollars was kept in an open backpack in an office Actually, this sounds to me like a very sensible decision. Rather than the risk of taking it off-site, hide it in an unobtrusive position that nobody would look at. Personal disclaimer - Obviously, any misappropriation of money is wrong, etc etc etc. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/4 "2005-03-12T00:02:52Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > Do you (or does anyone else) have a link to the actual report? It talks about “US auditors” but doesn’t say for which department. They have an official apparently talking about it on the record; surely this means that at least an abstract is public. The story attributes key statements to “the auditors’ chief of staff, Ms Ginger Cruz.” I googled the name but can’t find much. A Ginger Cruz was communications director for the governor of Guam, but that was in 1997. [http://ns.gov.gu/guam/miracle/geri.html](http://ns.gov.gu/guam/miracle/geri.html) ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/5 "2005-03-12T00:03:02Z")
Well the amount involved is too troublesome to be one of the huge contractors. Most of them “steal” from the government via manipulating their payment agreement, outright embezzling away $8.8b is too risky. I’d say there is a chance this is an accounting error, or lots of graft on the part of mid-level officials. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/6 "2005-03-12T00:04:29Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > It’s hard to overestimate the difficulty anybody dealing with this money must face. Every drive from home to work is a kidnap risk. Running an office with daily power cuts can’t be easy. Only if you’re handling huge amounts of **cash.** Why would anybody accept cash payments for oil in these quantities? ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/7 "2005-03-12T00:21:35Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > The story attributes key statements to “the auditors’ chief of staff, Ms Ginger Cruz.” I googled the name but can’t find much. A Ginger Cruz was communications director for the governor of Guam, but that was in 1997. [http://ns.gov.gu/guam/miracle/geri.html](http://ns.gov.gu/guam/miracle/geri.html) ::sigh:: That’s pretty much what I figured. [http://www.cpa-ig.com/](http://www.cpa-ig.com/) [http://www.iamb.info](http://www.iamb.info) Everything referenced in the BBC article can be found on or from those two websites. When come back, bring data. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/8 "2005-03-12T00:29:00Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Only if you’re handling huge amounts of **cash.** Wrong. Kidnap-for-ranson is a profitably business in Iraq. Businessmen are good targets - the money is there to pay, and they’re not high-profile enough to get media attention. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/9 "2005-03-12T00:48:36Z")
> [@manhattan](#): > > When come back, bring data. So are you proposing that the $8.8 billion _isn’t_ missing, and that the BBC is just having some fun on a slow news day? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/10 "2005-03-12T01:31:59Z")
The CPA [never existed](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=304863&highlight=provisional), remember? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/11 "2005-03-12T02:49:15Z")
Interesting that an allegation of this magnitude is just plain sloughed off as not worth discussing, since that notoriously unreliable slanted news source, the BBC, perpetrated it. All I have to say is that it’s _typical_ of politically-oriented discussions around here lately. I expect soon to find someone seriously contending that the Watergate Affair was a nefarious Democratic plot to discredit the innocent Richard Nixon. Pending some evidence that our “Bush at any cost” contingent might consider persuasive, I leave you with the quote attributed to the late Sen. Everett McKinley Dirksen (R.-Ill.): > [@](#): > > " A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money." ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/12 "2005-03-12T03:47:33Z")
First, Dirksen was talking about millions, not billions. Second, [here’s](http://www.cpa-ig.org/pdf/dfi_ministry_report.pdf) the report. It’s a PDF. Third, the cash evidently went to Iraqis. Some were mop pushers in government ministries. Some were guys sitting at home pretending that they had jobs at ministries. God knows what other Iraqis got the money. Fourth, it has basically cost the US nothing, in an odd way. The money was used for salaries, not reconstruction. Salaries have almost exclusively been paid with Iraqi oil revenue, not US taxpayer dollars. Fifth, nobody is going to answer for this. But Paul Bremer should. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/13 "2005-03-12T03:53:26Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Interesting that an allegation of this magnitude is just plain sloughed off as not worth discussing, since that notoriously unreliable slanted news source, the BBC, perpetrated it. Exqueeze me? “Sloughed off?” In response to a single news source with essentially no details at all I provided the links at which people could find the relevant reports themselves, including the background documents, prior reports, responses, etc. This would allow a person who wanted to have a good faith debate on this issue to be well-armed and to avoid the embarrassment which would be inevitable from over-relying on the BBC report (preview: no, there’s not $8.8 MM missing but the auditors are less than kind to the CPA even adjusting for the whole “fog of war” defense the CPA not-unreasonably put up). How precisely in the wide wide world of fuck is that “sloughing off”? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/14 "2005-03-12T04:10:38Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Wrong. Kidnap-for-ranson is a profitably business in Iraq. Businessmen are good targets - the money is there to pay, and they’re not high-profile enough to get media attention. Perhaps not, but I think it would have made the news, if the CPA had paid out any significant amounts of money in ransom – especially as the Bush Admin has a well-known no-ransom policy. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/15 "2005-03-12T04:48:03Z")
Well, I guess many on the right would miss a lot if they are only relying on Fox News: [http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/](http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/) > [@](#): > > “Severe inefficiencies and poor management” by the Coalition Provisional Authority has left auditors with no guarantee the money was properly used," the report said. > > “The CPA did not establish or implement sufficient managerial, financial and contractual controls to ensure that [Development Fund for Iraq] funds were used in a transparent manner,” said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., director of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. > > The $8.8 billion was reported to have been spent on salaries, operating and capital expenditures, and reconstruction projects between October 2003 and June 2004, Bowen’s report concluded. > > The money came from revenues from the United Nations’ former oil-for-food program, oil sales and seized assets – all Iraqi money. The audit did not examine the use of U.S. funds appropriated for reconstruction. > > Auditors were unable to verify that the Iraqi money was spent for its intended purpose. In one case, they raised the possibility that thousands of “ghost employees” were on an unnamed ministry’s payroll. > > “CPA staff identified at one ministry that although 8,206 guards were on the payroll, only 602 guards could be validated,” the audit report states. “Consequently, there was no assurance funds were not provided for ghost employees.” Trully left leaning sourses paint a bleaker picture, so this could be closer to the truth. Of course, I see the hand waiving by pointing out that it is in reality Iraq’s money so we in America should not be concerned. But I have a name for that: Imperialism, it just so happens that it is mostly in private hands so I guess it is not imperialism :rolleyes:. The ill gotten profit though is protected with American blood, and IMHO I think Iraquies outside the propaganda outlets, do know when they are being rob, many on the right are blissfully unaware that even moderate Iraqis would be stupid if they are not taking notice of this abuse, not doing anything about it only compounds the problem. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/16 "2005-03-12T07:05:26Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > . . . and IMHO I think Iraquies outside the propaganda outlets, do know when they are being rob . . . Well, in this case, apparently the robbers are also Iraqis, so that makes it all right, right? Right. I mean, it’s not imperialism if Americans aren’t profiting from this fraud. Is it? Or maybe it’s just singularly incompetent imperialism . . . What would Kipling have done with this, I wonder? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coalition-provisional-authority-cant-account-for-8-8-billion-in-iraqi-oil-revenue/294115/17 "2005-03-12T08:00:06Z")
Oh, but this then fits neo-imperialism, since the administration already acknowledged their model is El Salvador, there is a very old term used in Latin America to describe that: “presta hombres” literally it means “borrowers of men”, it is a term applied to the locals that work or steal (many do both) with the agreement and approval of the foreign power, in the future they are the seed for the quasi-fascist governments to come.