A new audit of U.S. funds in Iraq has revealed overpayments and mismanagement of millions of dollars.
The report from the Office of the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says American civilian and military personnel and contractors in south-central Iraq kept woefully inadequate records and lost track of millions of dollars.
The audit says contractors were paid in full for jobs that were never completed. It says three people were killed when a hospital elevator, which was supposed to be replaced, crashed.
The report says one contracting officer kept about $2 million in cash in a personal safe; while a paying agent kept some $678,000 in cash in an unlocked footlocker.
It also says a U.S. soldier gambled away between $20,000 and $60,000 during a trip to the Philippines with the Iraqi Olympic boxing team.