WASHINGTON (AP) – A journalist who helped Iraq form a new broadcast network in 2003 testified Monday that U.S. occupation officials were more interested in airing their own activities than stories essential to Iraqis.

Don North, who served as a U.S. government adviser to the Iraqi Media Network, said the network became an irrelevant mouthpiece for the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority.

The network was given “a laundry list of CPA activities” to cover instead of stories on security, the lack of electricity and jobs, said North.

North testified at a hearing of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, a party organization. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., head of the panel, said Democrats had asked Republican-led Senate committees to conduct hearings on U.S. waste and missteps in Iraq but the GOP chairmen refused.

In addition to North, another former U.S. adviser in Iraq – Frank Willis – testified.

He said he thought he was in the Wild West in 2003 as he watched colleagues pull $2 million in fresh bills from a vault and stuff them in a contractor’s gunnysack.

North told the hearing he wanted the media network to be like the Public Broadcasting System in the United States. Instead, he said, U.S. authorities told him “we were running a public diplomacy operation” for the occupation government.

Willis testified that cash payments that weren’t stuffed in sacks were made from a pickup truck that bore the name of Iraq’s grounded airline. American authorities thought the vehicle would “meld into the environment,” Willis, said.

Much of the money was Iraqi funds, Willis said.

Army Lt. Col. Joseph Yoswa, a Defense Department spokesman, said the occupation authority “strived earnestly for sound management, transparency and oversight.” He said U.S. funds were subject to “contract and accounting practices required by U.S. law.” Separate standards applied to the Iraqi money, he said.

Yoswa said he could not comment on the testimony about the Iraqi media.

Monday’s hearing was designed to spotlight the waste of money in Iraq by the former occupation agency, the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Because Iraq had no functioning banking system in 2003, money was kept in a basement vault in CPA headquarters, a former palace of Saddam Hussein.

Officials from the CPA, which ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, would count the money when it left the vault, but nobody kept track of the cash after that, Willis said.

“In sum: inexperienced officials, fear of decision-making, lack of communications, minimal security, no banks and lots of money to spread around. This chaos I have referred to as a ‘Wild West,”‘ Willis said in testimony submitted to the Democratic Policy Committee.

“This isn’t penny ante. Millions, perhaps billions of dollars have been wasted and pilfered,” said the chairman of the Democratic panel, Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. He said the hearing was arranged because the Republicans who run Congress have declined to investigate fraud, waste and abuse in Iraq.

James Mitchell, spokesman for the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in an interview that cash payments in Iraq were a problem when the occupation authority ran the country, and they continue during the massive U.S.-funded reconstruction.

“There are no capabilities to electronically transfer funds,” Mitchell said. “This complicates the financial management of reconstruction projects and complicates our ability to follow the money.”