Coalition Provisional Authority

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as a transitional government in Iraq following the invasion by the United States and the other members of the multinational coalition which was formed to oust the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Citing UN Security Council Resolution 1483 (2003), and the laws of war, the CPA vested itself with executive, legislative, and judicial authority over the Iraqi government from the period of the CPA's inception on April 21, 2003, until its dissolution on June 28, 2004.

Structure of the CPA

The CPA was divided into three geographic regions. CPA North was headquartered in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, CPA Central was headquartered in Baghdad at Saddam's former Republican Palace, and CPA South was headquartered in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Each region operated semi-autonomously, and all three had the same common goals for reconstruction of the country. Throughout the existence of the CPA, the security situation and levels of civil unrest throughout the country varied by region, and these variances were reflected in the different levels of program successes within the CPA divisions.

Related Topics:
Mosul - Republican Palace - Basra - Civil unrest

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Role of the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB)

United Nations resolution 1483 transferred the authority to authorize expenditures from Iraq's oil revenue from the United Nations to the Coalition Provisional Authority -- under certain conditions, including:

Related Topics:
United Nations - Resolution - Coalition Provisional Authority

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• The expenditures were made in an open, transparent manner.
• The expenditures were subject to the supervision of a blue ribbon panel of international financial experts, the IAMB.
• Spending decisions were to be made with meaningful Iraqi input.

The International Advisory and Monitoring Board consisted of senior financial experts from the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development.

Related Topics:
International Monetary Fund - World Bank - Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development

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The IAMB had serious concerns over the CPA's lack of transparency and lack of adequate financial controls, which were never resolved. The IAMB still exists and is playing a role in the investigations into the CPA's Financial management.

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The CPA's Program Review Board (PRB)

The Program Review Board was an eleven member board that consisted of ten staff members from the CPA and one member of the Iraqi Governing Council. The chair of the Board was also the CPA's Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance.

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It was the Board's responsibility to review and make recommendations to the CPA Administrator on which contracts should be awarded. In order to ensure transparency, all of the key discussions regarding the pros and cons of the programs under consideration were to be made public. The CPA Administrator was only supposed to make decisions on the awarding of contracts after receiving a recommendation from this committee.

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The Notes on Internal Control from KPMG's audit of DFI expenditures was particularly critical of PRB recording keeping failing to fulfill the CPA's transparency obligation. In particular:

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• Meetings were held where attendance was not recorded.
• Meetings were held, where decisions were made, where quorum had not been met.
• The Program Review Board never recorded the motions to approve expenditures, who seconded motions, or which members were for or against those motions.
• In the 43 meetings held in 2003 the single Iraqi member of the board only attended two meetings.
• The minutes failed to contain sufficient detail for readers to understand why programs were approved.
• Program decisions that had been tabled, were later approved informally, outside the meetings, with no recording of the reasoning behind the decision.
• The chair of the Board refused to sign off certifying the accuracy of the Board's bookkeeping.