You’ve probably seen a lot of suspect items come up on expense reports. Has “money we lost” ever been one of them?

That’s what happened with the non-profit Research Triangle Institute of North Carolina. The company was contracted to teach Iraqi citizens about building local governments and representative councils.

During regular business, the contractor somehow misplaced $185,481. But instead of eating that loss, the company claimed it as an “expense” and asked the U.S. government to replace it. The result? Not only was the loss covered, but the Triangle Institute was also paid tens of thousands more in special overhead fees and other costs related to replacing the money.

The incident was recently released in a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which notes the loss is minor compared to Triangle’s total $598-million contract with the U.S.

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Tags: Eating losses, Expense report, Iraq, Reconstruction, Research Triangle Institute