Canceled Iraq Contracts Cost $600 Billion

— The Pentagon spent about $600 million on more than 1,200 Iraq reconstruction contracts that were eventually canceled, nearly half of them for mismanagement or shoddy construction, government investigators say. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found that 42% of canceled contracts were terminated because the contractor either failed to deliver or performed poorly. The rest were canceled for the "convenience of the government," usually for security problems, lack of funding or changing requirements, an inspector general report says. The report, which analyzed contracts since 2003, detailed seven projects in which the U.S. paid total of $172.2 million for work that was substandard, unfinished or never built.

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