Coalition Provisional Authority

Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) web site

Following the establishment of limited Iraqi sovereignty: June 30, 2004, the CPA is scheduled to cease existence. In its stead will be the US Mission to Iraq.

None the less, "A comprehensive examination of the U.S.-led agency that oversaw the rebuilding of Iraq has triggered at least 27 criminal investigations and produced evidence of millions of dollars' worth of fraud, waste and abuse, according to a report by the Coalition Provisional Authority's inspector general," Stuart W. Bowen Jr.

"...the Web site for the Coalition Provisional Authority, cpa-iraq.org, lists 36 recent solicitations, including those for contractors who might sell new AK-47 assault rifles, nine-millimeter ammunition and other goods for new army and security forces." New York Times, September 30, 2003

Incredulously, contractors accused of fraud in the fulfillment of CPA contacts have been claiming that the United States Federal Court system does not have juristiction in deciding these cases. (see David Phinney, "Iraq Contractor Claims Immunity From Fraud Laws Seized Oil Assets Paid For Offshore Overbilling", CorpWatch, December 23rd, 2004)

A study publishd by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), authored by L. Elaine Halchin, Analyst in American National Government Government and Finance Division: "The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA): Origin, Characteristics, and Institutional Authorities", April 29, 2004 - {FAS Hosted PDF file} discovered that there was a great deal of murkiness surrounding the conception of the CPA, and that documents offered by the Bush Administration have served to increase the cloudiness:


 * "It is unclear whether CPA is a federal agency. Competing, though not necessarily mutually exclusive, explanations for how it was established contribute to the uncertainty about its status. The lack of an authoritative and unambiguous statement about how this organization was established, by whom, and under what authority leaves open many questions, particularly in the areas of oversight and accountability. Some executive branch documents support the notion that it was created by the President, possibly as the result of a National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD). (This document, if it exists, has not been made available to the public.) The other possibility is that the authority was created by, or pursuant to, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1483 (2003)." - {page 2}


 * "Detailed information that explicitly and clearly identifies how the authority was established, and by whom, is not readily available. Instead, there are two alternative explanations for how it was established: one version suggests that the President established CPA; the other suggests that it was established pursuant to a United Nations (U.N.) Security Council resolution. While these possibilities are not mutually exclusive, the lack of a clear, authoritative, and unambiguous statement about how this organization was established and its status (that is, is it a federal agency or not) leaves open many questions, particularly regarding the area of oversight and accountability." - {page 7}

The Department of Justice was not quickly forthcoming on a request by Reagan appointed U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who is deciding a case brought under The False Claims Act against Custer Battles LLC by two of its former employees which allege fraud. The Justice Department had declined in the Fall of 2004 to enter into the case on the side of the plaintiffs, and had failed to respond to the judge's request for several months until Sen. Charles E. Grassley(R-Iowa) wrote Attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales. - (see Griff Witte, "Justice Dept. Says U.S. Law Applicable in Iraq Contracts", Washington Post, April 2, 2005)

Other Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Gordon C. James
 * Agreement on Political Process
 * Dan Senor - CPA spokesman
 * Defense contractors
 * Development Fund for Iraq
 * Federal contractors
 * Funding the war in Iraq
 * Future of Iraq Project
 * Jay Garner
 * Iraq Infrastructure Reconstruction Office (IIRO)
 * Iraqi Interim Government
 * L. Paul Bremer III
 * Mark Kimmitt - US Army spokesman in Iraq
 * New Iraqi army
 * New Iraqi currency
 * Office of Strategic Communications
 * Post-war Iraq
 * Private Military Corporations
 * Privatization of Iraq
 * Reconstruction of Iraq contractors
 * State of Iraq
 * Terrorist attacks in Iraq
 * Transitional Iraqi Government
 * United Nations International Advisory and Monitoring Board
 * US Mission to Iraq
 * war profiteering
 * Noah Feldman – CPA appointed lawyer to rewrite the Iraqi Constitution