No surprises that US government auditors have found that the contracting practices in Iraq are deficient. And a complete waste of taxpayers' money.

The New York Times reports that the us army's disbursement of $8.2 billion in taxpayer money on contractors in Iraq lacked adequate internal controls, the kind that are designed to prevent fraud, waste and abuse. The audit found a similar lack of accountability in the Army's handling of $1.8 billion in seized or frozen Iraqi assets. Some of the more outrageous items include a document which says "Public Voucher for Purchases and Services Other Than Personal." The document indicates that $320.8 million went for "Iraqi Salary Payment." Unfortunately, there's no explanation of what the Iraqis were paid to do. Obviously, someone is cleaning up big time.

This sort of abuse has been going on for some time. Back in October last year, there was a report that the US State Department could not account for most of the $1.2 billion paid to a private contractor hired to train Iraqi police.

Clearly, Iraq is a giant black hole for US money, a sad indictment of the worst and criminally irresponsible Government in US history.