Waste In Wartime Spending

An independent panel that concluded as much as $60 billion in U.S. funds has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade will release results today of its three-year investigation into wartime spending.

In its final report to Congress, the Commission on Wartime Contracting blamed the losses on lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and widespread corruption, especially during the early stages of the wars when few controls were in place to monitor the heavy flow of money.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the commission’s 240-page report in advance of its public release on Capitol Hill.

The commission was created by Congress in 2008 and ceases operating at the end of September.