US 'spent more than $200 million on unwanted Iraqi police training'

Students from the Iraqi Federal Police perform a demonstration drill during their graduation ceremony in Baghdad  Photo: AFP/GETTY

 The Police Development Programme (PDP), the largest of its kind, was a five-year project designed to boost Iraqi security forces when US troops left the country last December.

It had been pitted as the centrepiece for America’s ongoing reconstruction effort in the region.

Included in the plans, was a bid to turn over the $108 million Baghdad Police College Annex to Iraqis by the end of the year and an end to training at a $98 million site at the US consulate in the southern city of Basra. Additionally, the number of advisers was to be cut by nearly 90 per cent – from 350 to 36.

But diplomats at the American embassy in Baghdad, who were tasked with implementing the programme, failed to receive written commitment from Iraq to participate, a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraqi Reconstruction said, leading inspectors to query whether the $200 million initiative was wanted or needed.

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