Auditing in Iraq Part Two: Enter the Professionals

After the downfall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's occupying Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) had to win the peace. To do so, the US began spending vast sums of money with an almost tactical recklessness, quickly notching up billions of dollar of unaccounted expenditure, much of it belonging to the Iraqi people themselves (see Auditing in Iraq Part One). It was almost a year before a qualified accountant came anywhere near it.