Report: Corruption a ‘virtual pandemic in Iraq’

U.S. audit says crimes threaten rebuilding efforts, citizen confidence

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updated 3:39 p.m. ET Aug. 1, 2006

WASHINGTON - Corruption is “a virtual pandemic in Iraq,” threatening rebuilding efforts, international aid and citizen confidence needed for a fledgling democracy, a government report said Tuesday.

One Iraqi official has estimated that corruption costs the country $4 billion annually. A recent survey indicated a third of Iraqis polled had paid a bribe to get products or services in the past 12 months and that they had a “core mistrust” of the army and police.

The details are cited in the quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

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“Unless reforms are put in place, corruption may jeopardize the political stability of the new government,” said an audit included in the report.

“Successfully addressing corruption in Iraq is indubitably a multigenerational process, but the severity of the current problem begs for a better-resources effort,” Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen Jr. said in the report, recommending greater spending on anti-corruption programs.

His office was created by Congress and reports administratively to the departments of State and Defense as well as Congress.

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