Iraq Rebuilding is Major Corruption Risk -- Report
The reconstruction of Iraq risks turning into the world's biggest corruption scandal, Transparency International said on Wednesday in a report focused on a worldwide problem of bribery in the building industry. "If urgent steps are not taken, Iraq will not become the shining beacon of democracy envisaged by the Bush administration, it will become the biggest corruption scandal in history," the independent anti-graft group wrote in its annual Global Corruption Report. The 2005 report refers to the scandal-tainted United Nations oil-for-food program and complaints of bribery affecting almost all Iraqi government operations. It criticized the United States for its poor handling of procurement and said calls for rapid privatization to reduce debts were misguided. Corruption was likely to worsen as large-scale spending on building contracts and procurement got under way. "Funds being poured into rebuilding countries such as Iraq must be safeguarded against corruption," Transparency chairman Peter Eigen said in a statement. [more]