Stuart Bowen is the Special Inspector General of Iraq Reconstruction; his job is to keep tabs on how the government spends our tax dollars in Saddam's former empire. Although he was and remains a diehard Bush loyalist, he's been giving the administration the occasional Maalox moment. According to the Wall Street Journal,
During a routine audit last summer of an American office in charge of doling out reconstruction funding in Hillah, Iraq, U.S. government investigators made a series of startling discoveries. The office had paid a contractor twice for the same work. A U.S. official was allowed to handle millions of dollars in cash weeks after he was fired for incompetence. Of the $119.9 million allocated for regional projects, $89.4 million was disbursed without contracts or other documentation. An additional $7.2 million couldn't be found at all.
In addition,
[T]he American occupation authority failed to keep track of nearly $9 billion that it transferred to Iraqi government ministries, which lacked financial controls and internal safeguards to prevent abuse. One Iraqi ministry cited in the audit inflated its payroll to receive extra funds, claiming to employ 8,206 guards when it actually employed barely 600.
You'd think that the Republicans — the party of [cough] fiscal responsibility and small government, after all — love Mr. Bowen's graft- and fraud-busting work. You'd be wrong. Paul Bremer, Iraq's former occupation chief, has attacked him for having accounting standards that are too high (honest, you can't make this stuff up). The Pentagon has sought to curb Mr. Bowen's authority, mindful that the man who was supposed to be a don't-rock-the-boat pencil-pusher has turned out to be an earnest reformer, doggedly fighting waste and excess.
Now defenders of Mr. Bowen's office are trying to keep it from being shut down next year. The bill that created Mr. Bowen's position empowered him to probe the rebuilding effort until 10 months after 80% of the reconstruction funds were contracted out. That point is likely to be reached this month, which means that the office will close next summer — well before the money will actually have been spent. Earlier this month, Sen. [Russ] Feingold [D-Wis] introduced a bill extending the life of Mr. Bowen's office, but the measure's prospects are uncertain.
What's not uncertain is that in government, it doesn't pay to be a squeaky wheel, or even to do your job without fear or favor. Yes-men, acolytes, and Pollyannas tend to fare infinitely better in Washington DC.
I guess Stuart Bowen didn't get that memo.
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