zimv20
Oct 23, 2003, 11:25 PM
link (http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1168382003)
REPRESENTATIVES from more than 70 countries were gathering in Madrid today to discuss funding of post-war Iraq amid accusations that the coalition authority in the country has failed to account for billions of dollars of oil and aid revenues.
A Christian charity claimed yesterday that failure of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to set up an independent auditing board to oversee spending had left a question mark over what had happened to up to $4 billion (£2.4 billion) that should have been spent on rebuilding the country.
The accusations were dismissed as groundless by the Foreign Office, which said all money raised by oil sales had been accounted for in the CPA’s published budgets.
Christian Aid, which published its claims to coincide with today’s conference in Spain, had claimed that the CPA was only able to account for $1 billion out of an estimated $5 billion it had received. Roger Riddell, Christian Aid’s international director, called the situation "little short of scandalous".
In its report the charity said: "What this report most shockingly reveals ... is that the billions of dollars of oil money that has already been transferred to the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority has effectively disappeared into a financial black hole."
The charity later admitted it had no evidence that the money had been misspent and a spokesman said it had based some of its figures on estimates. The spokesman also said the charity had been unable to speak to CPA members to clarify the financial situation.
The cost of rebuilding Iraq has been estimated at $55 billion over the next three years.
the actual Christian Aid report can be found here (http://www.christianaid.org.uk/indepth/310iraqoil/iraqoil.pdf)
REPRESENTATIVES from more than 70 countries were gathering in Madrid today to discuss funding of post-war Iraq amid accusations that the coalition authority in the country has failed to account for billions of dollars of oil and aid revenues.
A Christian charity claimed yesterday that failure of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to set up an independent auditing board to oversee spending had left a question mark over what had happened to up to $4 billion (£2.4 billion) that should have been spent on rebuilding the country.
The accusations were dismissed as groundless by the Foreign Office, which said all money raised by oil sales had been accounted for in the CPA’s published budgets.
Christian Aid, which published its claims to coincide with today’s conference in Spain, had claimed that the CPA was only able to account for $1 billion out of an estimated $5 billion it had received. Roger Riddell, Christian Aid’s international director, called the situation "little short of scandalous".
In its report the charity said: "What this report most shockingly reveals ... is that the billions of dollars of oil money that has already been transferred to the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority has effectively disappeared into a financial black hole."
The charity later admitted it had no evidence that the money had been misspent and a spokesman said it had based some of its figures on estimates. The spokesman also said the charity had been unable to speak to CPA members to clarify the financial situation.
The cost of rebuilding Iraq has been estimated at $55 billion over the next three years.
the actual Christian Aid report can be found here (http://www.christianaid.org.uk/indepth/310iraqoil/iraqoil.pdf)
