Bremer unable to account for $9b in rebuilding funds

After three years of searching for a reason to invade Iraq, and once invaded, why it did, the Bush administration has finally showcased the election as its reason for going to war.

"Americans finally got a good look at who they are fighting for: millions of average people who have suffered for years under dictatorship and who now desperately want to live in a free and peaceful country," according to one high ranking US official. While lauding the election, Republican Senator Chuck Hagel counselled the administration for that to happen, it is crucial for the White House to see the Iraqi elections "as an important step in the quest for a peaceful Iraq," while remembering there are still tough challenges ahead.

As the 44 deaths on election day were a rude reminder, security in Iraq remains a challenge. US President George Bush said, "We will continue training Iraqi security forces so this rising democracy can eventually take responsibility for its own security." But Christy Harvey of the Washington-based Center for American Progress said, "Efforts to train Iraqi security forces, however, have thus far been slow."

While the election is seen as an important step, Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies warns, "Elections don't fix economies." Iraqis remain concerned about the lack of progress of reconstruction. Cordesman alleges that "the US has mismanaged reconstruction funds from the beginning.

"Less than one-fifth of the $18 billion [around Dh66.24 billion] in reconstruction funds has been spent so far.

And as a scathing new audit shows, "Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer is unable to account for nearly $9 billion [around Dh33.12 billion) in reconstruction funds."

According to the report of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, under the CPA the financial process was

"left open to fraud, kickbacks and misappropriation of funds."

The writer is an Arab journalist based in Washington