Management of the Iraq Commander's Emergency Response Program Needs To Be Improved

This letter addresses the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstructions SIGIR concerns over U.S. Forces-Iraqs USF-I management of the Iraq Commanders Emergency Response Program I-CERP. The Government of Iraq GOI provided 270 million to the Department of Defense DoD in April 2008 so it could execute urgently needed reconstruction projects for the benefit of the Iraqi people. SIGIR examined DoDs process for managing the I-CERP because of previous DoD problems in accounting for GOI funds provided for reconstruction. SIGIRs objectives for this report were to examine USF-Is 1 management of I-CERP funds, 2 reporting on the use of funds to the GOI, and 3 maintenance of I-CERP project files. SIGIR is performing this audit under the authority of Public Law 108-106, as amended, which incorporates the duties and responsibilities of inspectors general under the Inspector General Act of 1978. SIGIR incurred significant delays from the U.S. Central Command CENTCOM in obtaining information and access to military personnel due to the lengthy request process the Command required SIGIR to use. This impaired our ability to conduct the audit. SIGIR is working with CENTCOM to address these issues but is required to report this impairment, which is described in more detail in Appendix A of this report.