International Advisory Board: Iraq Oil Money Has Been Poorly Monitored

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Iraq: Monitoring Body Raises Concerns Over Weak Controls Of Oil Revenues

(AFP) {snips}

>>>>An international auditing board is expressing serious concerns regarding the accounting practices and control of Iraq's current system for oil trade. The board says the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), the principal repository for Iraq's oil-export receipts, has been poorly monitored. As a result, it says, there is lingering skepticism about how properly the funds are being spent.

>>>>The DFI is the repository for proceeds from Iraq's oil export sales, as well as remaining balances from the UN's oil-for-food humanitarian program. A major report released in October documented large-scale corruption in the oil-for-food program.

>>>>"There are questions whether all the DFI disbursements have been made for the purposes intended, since the audits continue to criticize the overall financial control framework and contain exceptions to administrative and accounting procedures in the spending ministries, by the U.S. agencies in respect of outstanding commitments which they have using DFI resources, and the Iraqi administration of DFI resources itself," Halbwachs said.

>>>>One specific contract -- for $1.4 billion, awarded to Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of the U.S. defense contractor Halliburton -- has been the subject of additional scrutiny. Nearly $210 million of the total has been reported as questionable, and a review is continuing.

full article: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/12/b1ed7263-5e08-4eaa-b5bc-5964595575c2.html