That’s what a new audit of Iraqi military operations has found: Iraqi officials have padded the government payroll with tens of thousands of soldiers that really don’t exist, falsifying records and using the extra dough to fatten their own wallets and those of others.
One question: How much money U.S. assistance is going to pay soldiers to not work?
The U.S. is poised to give Iraq $308.7 million in the 2015 fiscal year ending. That’s actually a decrease from around $590 million in 2013 and 2014 but U.S. taxpayers already funded Iraqi security forces to the tune of $20 billion since 2003.
Earlier this year, those very forces dropped their weapons in the face of a much smaller ISIL front. Now it appears their numbers are also being fudged.
The “ghost soldiers” pay their superiors part of their salaries and don’t show up for duty. In other cases, deceased soldiers are kept on the payroll, or officials count many more advisors and bodyguards than they actually do have.
Bribery and corruption in Iraq is nothing new, but that’s something the new government of Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is trying to tackle. Al-Abadi took office in September. Iraqi government spokesman Rafid Jaburi says it’s a practice the government is determined to end.
Iraqi officials say they’ve been looking at stamping out corruption at all levels, but they were especially interested in what was going on with the military when they lost large chunks of territory in northern and western Iraq after a surprise IS offensive and realized they had far fewer troops on the ground than they thought.
A U.S. congressional audit last year found that much of the $60 billion U.S. taxpayers spent to rebuild Iraq has been wasted. The report said Iraq is likely one of the worst returns U.S. taxpayers have gotten on their money; “abysmal,” the report states, close to $15 million A DAY down a rabbit hole.
