We saw yesterday’s quarterly audit report on Iraq fraud, published by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), Stuart Bowen Jr. The message is sobering:
“The security situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors and threatening the overall reconstruction effort,” in the words of the Inspector General.
We all have already seen reports of how the United States is being exploited by dishonest and incompetent contractors in Iraq. This IG Report discusses not only poor security, but also corruption among Iraqi officials and bad management of the contracts.
You may have seen footage on the news of shoddy construction of a police building in Iraq, with the Special IG blaming the contractor.
From what our whistleblower clients report to us, efforts to defraud the U.S. government continue–shamelessly. We are continuing to evaluate potential cases of Iraq fraud and, when appropriate, to pursue for our whistleblower clients litigation under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act.