Pentagon Lost Track of $8.7B in Iraqi Oil Money

The Pentagon can’t account for $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil money given to it for reconstruction expenditures between 2004 and 2007, according to a new audit. The military has no audit at all for $2.6 billion of that money, and the rest wasn’t deposited in the special accounts the Treasury Department has mandated, making it hard to know where it did wind up, the LA Times reports.

There’s no apparent evidence that the funds were lost or stolen, but neither is there much evidence to the contrary. The findings are indicative of a pattern of mismanagement and reckless spending in the war. Iraqis are still furious over how the US-led coalition spent $8.8 billion in oil revenues from 2003 to 2004. If it turns out the money was lost, “Iraq will definitely try to get it back,” said one official. (More Iraq stories.)