“A second insurgency” is how Stuart Bowen, chief auditor for Iraq appointed by US Congress, has described the economic mismanagement taking place in Iraq, as quoted in the BBC News. His choice of words reflects the severity with which he sees the situation.

Vanity Fair writes that “between April 2003 and June 2004, [of] $12 billion in U.S. currency… shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad… incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing or unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed.” They further write that the American company (NorthStar) hired to provide accounting and auditing services for the reconstruction was in fact “based in a private home in San Diego, [and] was a shell corporation with no certified public accountants.”

The International Herald Tribune notes the difficulties encountered by Bryon J. Young, a retired Army colonel and the current director of the Army Contracting Agency, in dealing with the large influx of funds for reconstruction, writing that the Army Contracting Agency entrusted nearly $4 billion to “a B team of civilians and military officers with limited contracting experience”.

As at 12 September, the US Army reported that it had 78 cases of fraud and corruption under investigation, had obtained 20 criminal indictments and had uncovered over US $15 million in bribes, the New York Times writes.