U.S. Funds for Iraq Are Largely Unspent
PUBLISHED CORRECTIONS: A July 4 article misstated the number of reconstruction projects underway in Iraq that are being funded by an $18.4 billion U.S. aid package. Approximately 500 projects are underway, according to the U.S. Project and Contracting Office in Baghdad. (Published 7/9/04)</br></br>The U.S. government has spent 2 percent of an $18.4 billion aid package that Congress approved in October last year after the Bush administration called for a quick infusion of cash into Iraq to finance reconstruction, according to figures released Friday by the White House.</br></br>The U.S.-led occupation authorities were much quicker to channel Iraq's own money, expending or earmarking nearly all of $20 billion in a special development fund fed by the country's oil sales, a congressional investigator said.</br></br>Only $366 million of the $18.4 billion U.S. aid package had been spent as of June 22, the White House budget office told Congress in a report that offers the first detailed accounting of the massive reconstruction package.</br></br>Thus far, according to the report, nothing from the package has been spent on construction, health care, sanitation and water projects. More money has been spent on administration than all projects related to education, human rights, democracy and governance.