Tom Harkin: “I appreciate the Senate's passage of the amendment Senator Clinton and I proposed today that requires the General…”

“I appreciate the Senate's passage of the amendment Senator Clinton and I proposed today that requires the General Accounting Office to report to the Congress in 6 and 10 months about the contracting and subcontracting process in Iraq. I appreciate Chairman Stevens' support. The GAO would study the effectiveness and efficiency of those contracts, particularly looking at profit and things like administrative overhead as the contracts turn into subcontracts and subsubcontracts. It calls for the GAO to make recommendations on how to improve the process. I believe we must do a lot of work to improve how we are doing things before the Congress gets the next large request for funds for Iraqi reconstruction. I fear that there is a lot of very poor performance and clear waste going around for the grants already let. I fear we may be seeing some of the worst taxpayer wastes in decades. I would note that there are press report that U.S. AID only has 14 employees in Iraq overseeing $3 billion in contracts. That is maladministration.”