NASA Trouble-Shooter to Probe Iraq Contracts (A White House lawyer)

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=2&u=/nm/20031216/pl_nm/iraq_usa_investigation_dc_1

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under fire for its handling of postwar contracts in Iraq (news - web sites), the Bush administration plans to appoint NASA (news - web sites)'s inspector general to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad to oversee investigations of any alleged abuses, congressional aides said on Monday.



Robert "Moose" Cobb is expected to become the authority's first -- and probably last -- inspector general after more than one-and-a-half years at the space agency. In Baghdad, he will coordinate audits and investigations and monitor and review reconstruction contracts.


His appointment was seen as a bid by the administration to counter criticism -- mostly from Democrats in Congress -- that oversight of multibillion-dollar contracts has been lax.


President Bush (news - web sites) is under mounting pressure to crack down on any abuses. A Pentagon (news - web sites) audit of Halliburton, the oil services firm once run by Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), found the company may have overbilled the U.S. government by more than $120 million on Iraq contracts.

more