Your Tax Dollars at Work

A just published U.S. government audit of its spending of aid on Iraqi reconstruction reveals incredible irregularities and improprieties, including tens of millions of dollars in cash deposited and withdrawn from a vault without any tracking documentation and up to $60,000 in reconstruction funds gambled away by an American soldier.

U.S. officials "did not effectively manage" more than 2,000 contracts worth $88 million, according to the report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which covered spending during 2003 and 2004 in six southern and central provinces.

In one Iraqi city, the United States paid $108,140 for renovations that were never made to an Olympic-size swimming pool. And signed off on repairs to an elevator in the city's general hospital that later crashed to the ground, killing three people.

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