1.
Middle East
U.S. IRAQI POLICE FUNDING CONDEMNED
BBC News
October 24, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15429002
A U.S. government watchdog has criticized a program to train Iraqi police, saying it could become a "bottomless pit" for American money.
The report said only some 12% of the money spent in 2011 would be spent directly helping Iraq's police.
It also pointed out that the program had yet to gain the support of the Iraqi government.
President Barack Obama announced last week that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by the end of the year.
The program for police training is run by the Department of State, which took over the role from the Department of Defense this month.
The report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said the Department of State had failed to put a plan in place for assessing the current and future capabilities of the Iraqi police.
"Without specific goals, objectives, and performance measures, the PDP (Police Development Program) could become a 'bottomless pit' for U.S. dollars intended for mentoring, advising, and training the Iraqi police forces," the report said.
'WHAT TANGIBLE BENEFIT?'
It also quoted Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Assadi as saying Iraq did not "need" the program, and he would not ask for it.
"What tangible benefit will Iraqis see from this police training program? With most of the money spent on lodging, security, support, all the MOI [Iraqi Ministry of the Interior] gets is a little expertise, and that is if the program materializes," Mr. Assadi was cited as telling the report's authors.
The report also raised questions about the price of the program. It said the cost of each trainer had risen to $6.2 million (£3.9m) a year.
SIGIR's inspector general said the State Department did no fully co-operate with the report.
Department of State Assistant Secretary William Brownfield said the government "generally agrees" with the report's recommendations, while defending the program.
He said the Department of State would seek to reduce costs, and had been hampered by the fact that Iraq does not have a permanent interior ministry and by a delay in receiving an independent assessment on Iraqi police capabilities.
According to the SIGIR report, the U.S. has spent about $8bn (£5bn) on training Iraq's police force since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, which by 2010 included 412,000 officers.
2.
INSPECTOR GENERAL: U.S. WASTING CASH IN IRAQ
By Tim Mark
Politico
October 24, 2011
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66680.html
As the U.S. prepares to withdraw its military from Iraq, only 12 percent of the funds in a State Department program to train police there will be used for that purpose, a government watchdog group reports, warning the program could become a “bottomless pit” for American taxpayers.
The “vast preponderance” of the $500 million program will instead be going to things such as security and “life support” for trainers, according to the report by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Only 12 percent will go toward “advising, mentoring and developing the Iraqi police forces” the report said.
In fact, the Iraqi government may not even want the program. The Iraqi government has not yet signed off on the program, and the official in charge of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior’s day-to-day operations appeared to be less than keen on its merits.
“What tangible benefit will Iraqis see from this police training program? With most of the money spent on lodging, security, support, all the MOI gets is a little expertise, and that is if the program materializes. It has yet to start,” Ministry of Interior official Adnan al-Asadi said to the AP.
On Oct. 1, the State Department took over the responsibility of training Iraqi police from the Defense Department, but has yet to start the process of doing so. The report notes that the State Department has not yet secured a written agreement with the government of Iraq to start the program.
The report also blasted the program as unfocused and potentially wasteful.
“Without specific goals, objectives, and performance measures, the PDP (Police Development Program) could become a ‘bottomless pit’ for U.S. dollars intended for mentoring, advising, and training the Iraqi police forces,” the report says.
In 2009, the vision of the Iraqi training program was that it would cost $721 million to pay for 350 police advisers. This increased to $1.18 billion for 190 advisers in a 2010 plan.
By July of this year, the plan had been pared down and the number of advisers dropped to 115 for what the State Department said was “Phase 1” of the program, estimating that the total FY 2012 cost would be about $500 million.
The AP reports that, in a letter to the Special Inspector General, State Department Assistant Secretary William Brownfield wrote that the Iraqi government was committed to the program, and that the State Department hoped to reduce costs in the coming years.
Since 2003, America has spent about $8 billion to train, staff, and equip Iraqi police forces.
3.
STATE DEPARTMENT'S POLICE TRAINING PROGRAM IN IRAQ LACKS PLANNING, REPORT SAYS
By Ed O'Keefe
Washington Post
October 23, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/state-departments-police-training-program-in-iraq-lacks-planning-report-says/2011/10/20/gIQA3JaEBM_story.html
A key piece of America’s enduring presence in Iraq -- a multimillion-dollar program to train police forces -- could become a “bottomless pit” for taxpayer funding if officials fail to adequately assess the needs of Iraqi security forces and obtain assurances from Iraqi officials about the program’s future, according to a new federal watchdog report.
Since 2003, the United States has spent about $8 billion to train, staff, and equip Iraqi police forces. With the U.S. military preparing to leave Iraq at the end of December, responsibility for the police training program transferred to the State Department this month. The department has requested $887 million to continue operating the program this fiscal year.
But a government report set for release Monday found that the department is spending just 12 percent of money allocated for the program on advising Iraqi police officials, with the “vast preponderance” of funds going toward the security, transportation, and medical support of the 115 police advisers hired for the program. When U.S. troops leave, thousands of private security guards are expected to provide protection for the thousands of diplomats and contractors set to stay behind. For security reasons, the State Department has declined to specify the cost and size of its anticipated security needs.
In the report, Stuart W. Bowen Jr., head of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, accuses State Department officials of withholding critical budgetary and operational information, which he said prevented his team from completing a full audit of the police program.
Bowen’s office said the report is 200th SIGIR audit of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
Over the summer, the report said, State Department officials provided brief documents and PowerPoint slides detailing plans for the police training program. In September, the report said, officials provided a final collection of documents and slides with updated goals, staffing projections, and descriptions of preliminary training plans.
Despite the new documents, a comprehensive and detailed plan “is still lacking,” the report said.
In response, officials with the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said a new assessment of Iraqi police forces should be completed by next month. The bureau, which is overseeing the training program, also said it is drafting new plans for the program. But efforts to secure a formal agreement with the Iraqi government are hampered by the lack of a permanent Iraqi interior minister, bureau officials said in a written response included in the SIGIR report.
Over the course of the eight-year-old war and military occupation, thousands of U.S. troops have spent considerable time and effort wooing and training police recruits, but Iraqi officials have often accused the United States of not providing much more than basic training.
In an August interview, Akeel Saeed, inspector general of the Iraqi Interior Ministry, said that in the past, the U.S. military was too often “implementing what they wanted, without acknowledging what the Iraqis wanted.”
In response, the State Department has hired dozens of former U.S. police chiefs and investigators to advise senior Iraqi police officials on modern arrest, investigative and interrogation techniques; how to integrate advanced DNA analysis into murder investigations; and how to perform basic office managerial tasks, including payroll.
“Basic training is completed; we’ve turned that over to the Iraqis,” Bob Gifford, who is overseeing the new program, said in an August interview. “We’re focused on providing senior-level expertise, with the purpose of advising and mentoring and being available for consultations with senior Iraqi police officials and ministry officials.”
Gifford and his team will serve as a de facto consulting firm, “but we’re going to be a little more hands-on,” he said. “We’re not just going to come in, write a report and leave. We’re going to stay.”
Most of Gifford’s team members climbed the ranks of American police forces -- writing traffic tickets in Northern Virginia, investigating drug crimes in San Francisco or serving as chief of the Alaska State Troopers and fielding media inquiries about Sarah Palin’s official travels during her gubernatorial tenure -- before joining U.S. police training teams in places such as Kosovo, Lebanon, India, and Liberia.
“We don’t want to be seen as a continuation of the occupation,” said one of the officers, whose name is being withheld at the request of the State Department for security reasons. “We’re here at [the Iraqis’] request; we’re here to provide whatever advice we can from having worked through decades of change in law enforcement and administration and technology. Right now they’re looking at making a great leap from about 30 years ago.”
But Adnan al-Asadi, a senior deputy minister overseeing Iraqi police forces at the Iraqi Interior Ministry, is quoted in SIGIR’s report as questioning the need for the new round of training.
“What tangible benefit will Iraqis see from this police training program?” Asadi said. “With most of the money spent on lodging, security, support, all the [Interior Ministry] gets is a little expertise, and that is if the program materializes.”
Asadi suggested that the United States “take the program money and the overhead money and use it for something that can benefit the people of the United States.”
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