New Bill to Extent Special Inspector General
IRAQ
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – The Senate voted Tuesday to continue the work of the agency that acts as watchdog on the billions of dollars being spent for the reconstruction of Iraq.
Sen. Lieberman, I-Conn., co-sponsored the amendment that passed on a voice vote and would extend until the fall of 2008 the work of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Under the previous terms the office would expire Oct. 1, 2007. The measure was attached to a bill authorizing military construction.
“This was a critically necessary office to create,” Lieberman said. “Imagine what would have happened with the expenditure of billions of dollars if the Special Inspector General Stuart Bowen, and his first rate team, had not been at work.”
Bowen’s office oversees approximately $32 billion in contracts and grants for Iraq reconstruction. The organization estimates that the audits, investigations and inspections have saved the government approximately $1.82 billion, according to a press release from Lieberman’s office.
Lieberman said the office determined that Halliburton, a company that provides products and services to oil and gas industry, wasted $75 million on a failed pipeline project, and found that the government lost track of thousands pistols, assault rifles and other weapons distributed to Iraqi authorities.
The office has issued 73 audit reports and 65 product assessments, which has resulted in the arrest of five people, four convictions and the seizure of $17 million in assets, according to the release.
Earlier in the day Lieberman joined three other senators at a press conference promoting the extension for the office. The senators on Monday introduced separate legislation that would do what the amendment does.
The senators said that the office must be continued because it has helped root out millions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.
“The special inspector general must be allowed to continue his aggressive work on behalf of our country and our taxpayers as long as their money, our money, is being spent in Iraq,” Lieberman said.
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