Posted on 05/26/2008 7:02:58 PM PDT by canuck_conservative
The Pentagon cannot account for nearly 15 billion dollars in payments for goods and services in Iraq, according to an internal audit which members of Congress blasted Friday as a "shocking" accountability failure.
Of 8.2 billion dollars in US taxpayer-funded defense contracts reviewed by the defense department's inspector general, the Pentagon could not properly account for more than 7.7 billion dollars.
The lack of accountability of the funds, intended for purchases of weapons, vehicles, construction equipment and security services, amounted to a 95 percent failure rate in basic accounting standards, according to the report.
"We estimated that the army made 1.4 billion dollars in commercial payments that lacked the minimum documentation for a valid payment, such as properly prepared receiving reports, invoices, and certified vouchers," deputy inspector general Mary Ugone told a Congressional committee Thursday.
"We also estimated that the army made an additional 6.3 billion dollars of commercial payments that met the 27 criteria for payments but did not comply with other statutory and regulatory requirements."
The Pentagon also was found to have given away another 1.8 billion in Iraqi assets "with absolutely no accountability," said Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
"Investigators examined 53 payment vouchers and couldn't find even one that adequately explained where the money went."
Another five billion dollars spent on supporting the Iraqi security forces could not be properly traced, according to a November 2007 inspector general report.
"Taken together, the inspector general found that the defense department did not properly account for almost 15 billion dollars," Waxman said.
The disclosures sparked outrage among legislators and concern that US taxpayers are deeply vulnerable to massive waste and fraud in the Pentagon's contracting system.
"The report has new shocking details of billions of dollars of American taxpayer money unaccounted for and likely wasted, which should be a wake-up call to Congress and the (President George W.) Bush administration that the status quo is unacceptable," Democratic senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said in a statement.
"American taxpayers are picking up the tab for Iraqi ministries, coalition governments, US and foreign contractors, Iraqi security forces, and Blackwater and other US security companies," Waxman said.
"In one remarkable instance, a 320-million-dollar payment in cash was handed over with little more than a signature in exchange."
The Pentagon to date has been appropriated 492 billion dolllars to support Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Ugone.
How can this happen?
Isn't the Pentagon more closely-monitored now than ever?
Baksheesh.
a colonel after WWII had to make payments for 20+ years to pay for a tank for which he was responsible but unable to produce.
Pretty much chump change compared to the other episodes of rampant fraud, waste, and abuse that stem from D.C. I’m not the least bit surprised. Frankly, I’d be shocked if the accounting numbers from any government venture, foreign or domestic, ever balanced out.
That is nothing next to the lost misplaced money that the IRS and FED “Bank” loose.
Who is AFP. clicked the red letters and it leads nowhere.
Yeah, but how can WE get them to “lose” some of that money to us??
A multi-million-dollar cheque for just a signature would help pay a few bills here!
Agence France-Press
... a french version of AP or Reuters, basically
Got a link to article?
Thanks
I just tried the link I attached to the “AFP” letters, it works OK for me, so I don’t know why it won’t work for you. It was a Google-cached page, though.
Try right-clicking on the “AFP”, do “copy link location” or “copy shortcut”, and then paste it in your browser’s address bar - that should work.
Un-be-freaking-lievable.
I.E. not every “I” was dotted, not every “T” crossed, “While many of the transactions met 27 criteria, they faced other statutory and regulatory hurdles.
Meaning anything from lead core ammunition was purchased to the wrong person signed a form while disregarding Section 2(a) paragraph 4 “Only certified non pork products may be used..”
Revenge of the Bureaucrats...
Perhaps the U.S. needs to take the UN Correspondence Course on how to audit funding use. It worked for them with their Oil for Food program, oh, what did you say?
Well I’m not even keeping detailed records on how I spend my personal income, but I think I can account for more than 5%.
Obviously no bureaucracy is perfect, but 95% unaccounted-for?!
At that point, any sane person would agree that “the process” needs some serious upgrading.
It’s not “unaccounted for” it’s not properly accounted for, which makes it “unaccounted for”.
INOW, if the record keeping is not in line with the GAO standards down to not only “who” got the funds, but whether or not those funds were spent according to Regulations, then that makes them “unaccounted” for.
It’s not “unaccounted for” it’s not properly accounted for, which makes it “unaccounted for”.
INOW, if the record keeping is not in line with the GAO standards down to not only “who” got the funds, but whether or not those funds were spent according to Regulations, then that makes them “unaccounted” for.
I’m getting flash backs from high school. Had a teacher that went on and on, day after day about the military wasting money. He quoted the price of screws to as a $100 each. His outrage never ended UNTIL the Stealth Fighter was unveiled. Guess he never came across a line item for “top secret project” while scrutinizing military spending reports.
To a point, thing of it is, the article mentions that most transactions met the requirements, but they were not completely in Compliance with Policy and Procedures, so this isn’t really 500 dollar hammers, it’s a paperwork thing
Just to recap: that’s 15,000 million dollars. That’s a helluva lot of money.
How can this happen? “
More redistributing the wealth?
They knew where the bodies were hidden, and accounts screwed up, before they started the investigation. And probably because the DOD told them. At an early point, the DOD started throwing money around, rather than bullets, and if it saved lives, I'd give them a pass.
“Don’t let the blaring headline distract canuck_conservative, the money didn’t end up in some Generalissimo’s Caymen Island Account, the GAO is complaining about a “process” problem.
I.E. not every “I” was dotted, not every “T” crossed, “While many of the transactions met 27 criteria, they faced other statutory and regulatory hurdles.
Meaning anything from lead core ammunition was purchased to the wrong person signed a form while disregarding Section 2(a) paragraph 4 “Only certified non pork products may be used..”
Revenge of the Bureaucrats...”
I think you hit the nail on the head of the real issue here. They say they don’t know where the money was spent, the tell where the money was spent.
A spark of brain activity was recorded in congress today following this announcement. The socialist collective group think was, “You can buy a lot of votes and have no-show jobs for entire neighborhoods through two voting cycles with $15B”.
And then recess was called for some taxpayer funded lunch and the brain activity monitor again went silent.
My bet is that this is the rest of the story: we know where the money went....but all the records are not perfect ...to get perfect records ya gotta spend more money. How many accountants does the military employ? They need more and more pencils
Congress knows where the money is and it’s probably in the intelligence agencies hands. Intelligence appropriations are classified. This is a game they play just to get the Pentagon Officials in front of their committees to say that they don’t know or aren’t allowed to say in open session.
What happened to the “trillion dollar war”?
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