(KRT)—The Bush administration went into Iraq in 2003 with a sound strategy: Quickly follow up the military victory with a different offensive. This was to transform the misgoverned country into an efficient state.

In the process, the Iraqi relief and reconstruction program would demonstrate America’s commitment to a new Iraq and display its know-how in managing the extensive reconstruction.

Rebuilding key Iraqi infrastructure and services—water and sewage, electricity, oil and gas, and law enforcement—was not expected to be easy or cheap, and it hasn’t been. Congress has allocated more than $30 billion to the project since 2003. Two years ago, it created a special inspector general’s office to keep an eye on spending.

A series of audit reports, the latest released last month by inspector general Stuart Bowen, has uncovered pervasive administrative problems and distressing levels of inefficiency and corruption that jeopardize not only U.S. goals but also its credibility.

Bowen has described a reconstruction gap between projects proposed and what will actually be completed. About 60 percent of the water and sanitation projects are not done. Electricity transmission remains below prewar levels.

The audits exposed a deplorable lack of oversight in the use of huge sums of money. The reports have detailed instances in which coalition officials awarded dubious contracts and paid for projects that were poorly, or not at all, completed.

Several project officials and government agents are under investigation in bribery and other schemes.

“A key lesson of the (inspector general’s) experience is that oversight works best when it is up-front, highly visible and forward looking,” Bowen wrote in his latest report.

The lesson serves well.

© 2006 Knight Ridder Tribune