2006年VOA标准英语-Violence Blamed for Many Delays in US Reconstru

（单词翻译）

By Stephanie Ho
Washington
08 June 2006

U.S. officials have told Congress U.S. reconstruction¹ efforts in Iraq are being significantly, and expensively, hampered² by security concerns. This was among the issues raised as lawmakers grilled³ administration representatives about what has happened to the millions of U.S. dollars that have been spent in Iraq for reconstruction projects.

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Both Democrats⁴ and Republicans blasted what they considered a lack of accountability about the huge sums of money in Iraq. Democratic Congressman⁵ Tom Lantos said it is important that U.S. and Iraqi funds are not misused⁶, and that reconstruction projects there are successful.

"Unless we show the Iraqi people that their liberation has brought tangible⁷ benefits, or at the very least, the restoration of central services to pre-war levels, key factions⁸ will continue to side with the insurgents⁹, and not with forces of freedom," said Tom Lantos.

 
James Kunder  
  
In his testimony¹⁰ to the House committee, USAID's James Kunder acknowledged that, in his words, mistakes have been made. But he blamed what he described as the "violence of the insurgency¹¹" as one of the main factors.

"As I've reported to the committee in the past, somewhere between 16 and 22 percent, depending on the program, of the reconstruction dollars are going in to security, paying for armed guards so we can conduct immunization programs for children, and so forth," said James Kunder.

At the same time, he said there are smaller-scale success stories that are taking place behind the scenes, such as efforts to improve Iraq's agricultural sector¹².

"One of the impediments, we discovered, to rebuilding that agricultural economy is [that there is] simply no infrastructure¹³ left to restore farm implements¹⁴, to repair farm implements," he said. "So, U.S. taxpayer¹⁵ dollars have gone to create 14 tractor repair workshops around the country, where we're repairing thousands of pieces of agriculture equipment that had gone to rust¹⁶ and weren't working."

Meanwhile, the special inspector¹⁷ general in Iraq, Stuart Bowen, testified that his office has been involved in what he described as "aggressive oversight¹⁸" of U.S. government projects in Iraq.

"They've completed 42 inspections¹⁹, and 97 limited reviews," said Stuart Bowen. "And we've also been using overhead imagery to look at project sites that no one can get to, to make some assessment²⁰ of how they're doing. And we've done 112 of those, with benefits, through engineering suggestions, that have been in the tens of millions of dollars."

Bowen added that there have been five arrests and two convictions, of individuals involved in fradulent use of U.S. funds in Iraq. He added that 20 more cases have been referred to the Department of Justice.

The congressionally mandated office of the special inspector general in Iraq was set up nearly two years ago