It was always illusory when the Coalition of the Willing attacked Iraq with one of its avowed objective of establishing democracy - with all that entails - in Saddam's country.
5 years after the invasion of Iraq corruption is rife and the Government is not committed to doing anything about it - as the NY Times reports in "Premier of Iraq Is Quietly Firing Fraud Monitors":
"The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing Iraqi oversight officials, who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here.
The dismissals, which were confirmed by senior Iraqi and American government officials on Sunday and Monday, have come as estimates of official Iraqi corruption have soared. One Iraqi former chief investigator recently testified before Congress that $13 billion in reconstruction funds from the United States had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste by Iraqi government officials.
The moves have not been publicly announced by Mr. Maliki’s government, but word of them has begun to circulate through the layers of Iraqi bureaucracy as Parliament prepares to vote on a long-awaited security agreement."
As you read the piece reflect on the monies which have gone west - especially in these times of financial crisis around the world, especially in the US.
5 years after the invasion of Iraq corruption is rife and the Government is not committed to doing anything about it - as the NY Times reports in "Premier of Iraq Is Quietly Firing Fraud Monitors":
"The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is systematically dismissing Iraqi oversight officials, who were installed to fight corruption in Iraqi ministries by order of the American occupation administration, which had hoped to bring Western standards of accountability to the notoriously opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy here.
The dismissals, which were confirmed by senior Iraqi and American government officials on Sunday and Monday, have come as estimates of official Iraqi corruption have soared. One Iraqi former chief investigator recently testified before Congress that $13 billion in reconstruction funds from the United States had been lost to fraud, embezzlement, theft and waste by Iraqi government officials.
The moves have not been publicly announced by Mr. Maliki’s government, but word of them has begun to circulate through the layers of Iraqi bureaucracy as Parliament prepares to vote on a long-awaited security agreement."
As you read the piece reflect on the monies which have gone west - especially in these times of financial crisis around the world, especially in the US.
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