[Washington, D.C.] – U.S. Senators today requested the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine the hiring practices of the Pentagon following reports charging that partisan affiliations shaped the personnel decisions for the Bush Administration in Iraq.

According to media reports, qualified applicants with language skills and experience in post-conflict reconstruction were rejected in favor of unqualified Republican Party loyalists. Individuals with political connections and little or no professional experience were placed in key positions to rebuild Iraq, including a 24-year old who had never worked in finance, but was assigned to reopen the Baghdad stock exchange.

Assistant Democratic Leader Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) spearheaded the GAO request and was joined by Democratic Leader Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senators Carl Levin (D-MI), Ranking Member on the Armed Services Committee; along with Joseph Biden (D-DE), Ranking Member on the Foreign Relations Committee; Ted Kennedy (D-MA); Barbara Boxer (D-CA); Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY); Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ); Daniel Akaka (D-HI); Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Russ Feingold (D-WI); Byron Dorgan (D-ND); and Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

In their letter to David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, the Senators wrote: “We believe that decisions made in the first year of the occupation of Iraq are having a very direct impact on the situation that our troops confront in Iraq today. This matter demands attention and accountability. With 147,000 troops in Iraq after three years of fighting, we face rising sectarian violence, a continuing insurgency, and an Iraqi government that has not yet risen to the immense task before it.”

“In order to move forward, we must understand how we arrived at this point; therefore, we are asking you to examine the hiring practices and actions of the Department of Defense in 2003 and 2004 in staffing the CPA during that critical period and the consequences of those decisions,” they concluded.

The full text of the letter to GAO follows:

September 21, 2006
The Honorable David M. Walker
Comptroller General of the United States
Government Accountability Office
441 G St., NW
Washington, DC 20548

Dear Mr. Walker:

We write to you as members of Congress who are deeply concerned about our nation’s involvement in the war in Iraq. We believe that the seeds of today’s troubles were planted in 2002 and 2003 when the Administration failed to engage in planning for what could follow the conclusion of “major combat operations”; when it failed to send sufficient troops or properly equip them; when it failed to take the necessary steps to secure the peace; when it made the disastrous decision to disband the Iraqi Army; and when it apparently failed to ensure that we had the civilian personnel we needed on the ground in Iraq. On this last point, recent books and media accounts paint a highly disturbing picture about the hiring practices of the Department of Defense in staffing the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the personnel choices made, and the designation of a number of positions as political rather than civil service slots. We would like to request a Government Accountability Office study to review and assess hiring practices of the Department of Defense for the CPA.

Specifically, we ask you to examine:

What were the criteria for hiring decisions and who had input into those decisions? How were positions advertised? Which positions were designated as political appointments and which as civil service and why? Were qualified personnel (e.g., Middle East experts or those with Arabic language skills or post-conflict reconstruction experience) passed over in favor of less qualified, less experienced personnel?

What was the statistical breakdown of new hires by experience level in their field of CPA employment? Do you see a pattern in which political leanings swayed hiring outcomes at the expense of qualifications?

Were opportunities to establish a more stable and secure Iraqi government and to launch a more successful reconstruction effort during the CPA’s tenure from 2003 to 2004 undermined by personnel decisions?

In your estimate, if opportunities to establish security and stability were undermined during this period, what have the long-term consequences been? What lessons can we draw from the practices and policies surrounding staffing decisions and actions involving the CPA?

Do patterns of hiring involving political considerations continue to influence the staffing for United States government funded positions in Iraq today?

We believe that decisions made in the first year of the occupation of Iraq are having a very direct impact on the situation that our troops confront in Iraq today. This matter demands attention and accountability. With 147,000 troops in Iraq after three years of fighting, we face rising sectarian violence, a continuing insurgency, and an Iraqi government that has not yet risen to the immense task before it. In order to move forward, we must understand how we arrived at this point, therefore, we are asking you to examine the hiring practices and actions of the Department of Defense in 2003 and 2004 in staffing the CPA during that critical period and the consequences of those decisions.

Sincerely,

Senator Durbin
Senator Reid
Senator Levin
Senator Biden
Senator Kennedy
Senator Boxer
Senator Clinton
Senator Lautenberg
Senator Akaka
Senator Feinstein
Senator Feingold
Senator Dorgan
Senator Schumer