State Department’s police training program in Iraq lacks planning, report says

A key piece of America’s enduring presence in Iraq — a multimillion-dollar program to train police forces — could become a “bottomless pit” for taxpayer funding if officials fail to adequately assess the needs of Iraqi security forces and obtain assurances from Iraqi officials about the program’s future, according to a new federal watchdog report.

Since 2003, the United States has spent about $8 billion to train, staff and equip Iraqi police forces. With the U.S. military preparing to leave Iraq at the end of December, responsibility for the police training program transferred to the State Department this month. The department has requested $887 million to continue operating the program this fiscal year.

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 The Obama administration has decided to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year after failing to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government that would have left several thousand troops there for special operations and training.

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But a government report set for release Monday found that the department is spending just 12 percent of money allocated for the program on advising Iraqi police officials, with the “vast preponderance” of funds going toward the security, transportation and medical support of the 115 police advisers hired for the program. When U.S. troops leave, thousands of private security guards are expected to provide protection for the thousands of diplomats and contractors set to stay behind. For security reasons, the State Department has declined to specify the cost and size of its anticipated security needs.

In the report, Stuart W. Bowen Jr., head of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, accuses State Department officials of withholding critical budgetary and operational information, which he said prevented his team from completing a full audit of the police program.

Bowen’s office said the report is 200th SIGIR audit of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

Over the summer, the report said, State Department officials provided brief documents and PowerPoint slides detailing plans for the police training program. In September, the report said, officials provided a final collection of documents and slides with updated goals, staffing projections and descriptions of preliminary training plans.

Despite the new documents, a comprehensive and detailed plan “is still lacking,” the report said.

In response, officials with the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said a new assessment of Iraqi police forces should be completed by next month. The bureau, which is overseeing the training program, also said it is drafting new plans for the program. But efforts to secure a formal agreement with the Iraqi government are hampered by the lack of a permanent Iraqi interior minister, bureau officials said in a written response included in the SIGIR report.

Over the course of the eight-year-old war and military occupation, thousands of U.S. troops have spent considerable time and effort wooing and training police recruits, but Iraqi officials have often accused the United States of not providing much more than basic training.

In an August interview, Akeel Saeed, inspector general of the Iraqi Interior Ministry, said that in the past, the U.S. military was too often “implementing what they wanted, without acknowledging what the Iraqis wanted.”