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The US government has spent only two percent of an US$18.4 billion aid package that the Congress approved last October for Iraq's reconstruction, the Washington Post said in a report on Sunday.
Only US$366 million aid package have been spent as of June 22, the Washington Post said, citing a report by the White House budget office to the Congress.
Nothing from the package has been spent on construction, healthcare, sanitation and water projects related to education, human rights, democracy and governance, said the report by the Washington Post.
Of US$3.2 billion earmarked for security and law enforcement, a key US goal in Iraq, only US$194 million have been spent.
Another objective of the aid program is to reduce the 30 percent unemployment rate in the war-torn country. However, only 15,000 Iraqis have been hired in spite of US promises that 250,000 jobs would be created by now.
US officials involved in the reconstruction blamed security concerns and bureaucratic infighting between the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House for delays in the allocation of the funds, the report said.
(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2004)
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