国际英语新闻：Some 8.7 billion dollars in Iraqi funds unaccounted for: report

LOS ANGELES, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon is unable to properly account for 8.7 billion dollars out of 9.1 billion in Iraqi oil revenue entrusted to it between 2004 and 2007, it was reported on Tuesday.

Of that amount, the military failed to provide any records at all for 2.6 billion dollars in purported reconstruction expenditure, the Los Angeles Times said, quoting a newly released audit that underscores a pattern of poor record-keeping during the war.

The audit was conducted by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which is responsible for monitoring U.S. spending in Iraq.

The rest of the money was not properly deposited in special accounts as required under Treasury Department rules, making it difficult to trace how it was spent, the newspaper said.

Though there is no apparent evidence of fraud, the improper accounting practices add to the pattern of mismanagement, reckless spending and, in some instances, corruption uncovered by the agency since 2004, when it was created to oversee the total of 53 billion dollars in U.S. taxpayer money appropriated by Congress for the reconstruction effort, the paper noted.

"The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss," the paper quoted the audit as saying.