Whistleblower likes to keep the news close to home here in Minnesota. But I couldn’t pass up a nod to the Granddaddy of all big government spenders, the Pentagon, because of the recent audit of spending on contractors in Iraq. The Pentagon Inspector General’s audit found that $7.8 billion of the $8.2 billion in spending it reviewed violated rules designed to prevent waste and fraud. What’s more, $1.8 billion in frozen or seized Iraqi assets was doled out willy-nilly, sometimes in stacks of cash on pallets. It all came out in a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)

According to the New York Times account, “The new report is especially significant because while other federal auditors have severely criticized the way the United States has handled payments to contractors in Iraq, this is the first time that the Pentagon itself has acknowledged the mismanagement on anything resembling this scale.”

A few tidbits from the story: A $5.6 million check to a company called Al Kasid Specialized Vehicles Trading Company in Baghdad. What for? Who knows. The same story for $6.2 million to Combat Support Associates. Here’s the one page of paperwork for the big one, $320.8 million disbursed on July 22, 2003 with one signature (Jack Gardner) to a Maitham Haddad, Director General of Accounting, Ministry of Finance, Baghdad for “Iraqi Salary Payment.” The only other clue to its purpose is the listing under quantity: “1,000.”

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