Auditors: Billions wasted in Iraq

For years, auditors have been trying to follow the money in Iraq, and trace just how much of America’s $51 billion in reconstruction funds have been well spent. In its final audit report Friday, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Funds said that “billions” had likely been squandered, although “the precise amount lost to fraud and waste can never be known.” The audits themselves cost $200 million. But the office still isn’t sure of the exact figures—“a complete accounting of all reconstruction expenditures is impossible to achieve,” due to budget shortfalls, the report explained.