Iraq Coordinator Satterlee: Iraq can't spend $12.5 billion in rebuilding funds unless U.S. sends $4 billion more

An armed guard poses beside pallets of $100 bills in Baghdad, part of $12 billion in cash 'distributed' by the Coalition Provisional Authority in the year following the invastion. Much of the money has never been accounted for.

Iraq's government is sitting on about $12.5 billion in rebuilding funds from its own 2006 budget because it lacks the tools and expertise to spend the money, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

With growing pressure in the U.S. Congress to reduce U.S. funding for Iraq, the State Department's Iraq coordinator, David Satterfield, told lawmakers he too was concerned an oil-rich nation such as Iraq had not spent $12.5 billion of its own funds earmarked for rebuilding.

He said Iraq had held onto the funds because it lacked the "capacity" to execute its budget, but he argued that a recent request to the U.S. Congress for an additional $4 billion would help address this problem.

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

Related Link:
Pentagon promises crackdown on Iraq fraud, profiteering

Related Link:
Report: Former Iraqi Minister wanted for involvement in theft of $800 million now living in London

Related Link:
Perspective: Missing billions

Related Link:
Auditors: Billions more may be squandered in Iraq

Related Link:
Perspective: Army opens 50 criminal probes into contractor fraud

Related Link:
Auditor's Office: Iraq corruption financing insurgents

Related Link:
Iraq says needs $100 bln to rebuild infrastructure

Related Link:
U.S. finds major flaws in another Iraqi construction project

Related Link:
Parsons Corp. under fire for Iraq work

Related Link:
Inspector General: much reconstruction work sub-standard

Related Link:
Audit: Iraq rebuilding far behind goals

Related Link:
Heralded Iraq police academy building a 'disaster'

Related Link:
Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq