No, you spent years writing programs to keep track of money in the United States, not overseas in unstable countries. I personally carried a sizable amount of cash provided by the U.S. Government for expenses for a project in Kiev, Ukraine, in the early 90's. The best receipts I ever got were hand-written notes, and they were from a Ukrainian government ministry. And Ukraine was 100 times better off than Iraq. Read the reports. No stock exchange. No functioning banking system. Barely anything resembling working civili institutions. That doesn't make it right, but it does make it reality.
On 9/18/06, Maureen wrote: > > I have spent a large part of my life writing computer programs that > allow governments to keep track of their money. Losing track of > billions of dollars just doesn't happen, unless someone in the chain > wants it to happen. > > The people cutting the checks for the taxpayer's money were not in > Bagdad, they were in Washington, and the money wasn't paid to the > Iraqs, it was paid to US contractors, notably Halliburton. So > arguments that blame the lack of accountibiity on the conditions it > the war zone are totally bogus. If the excuse of the contractors is > "we gave the money to the Iraqis and we don't know what they did with > it" then the contractors are in violation of numerous federal laws, > and should be punished accordingly, along with any government > employees who signed off on the payments without oversight being in > place. > > > On 9/18/06, Robert Munn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I am the person who pointed out the lack of accounting last year. The > > husband of a friend of my wife did a year or so in Iraq working for a > > contractor on re-construction projects. We overran a country that we had > > spent ten years degrading through sanctions, after Saddam had spent two > > decades degrading it through his thuggery and gangland > "government". There > > was no way in hell we were going to have proper accounting for all the > money > > spent. They didn't even have a proper banking system- no mechanism for > > extending credit, no stock exchange, etc. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:215632 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
