Posted on 02/11/2011 12:08:04 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars have been wasted on everything from doughnuts to rockets, auditors told Congress Thursday as budget-minded lawmakers prepared to slash science funding.
For example, hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent each month on a NASA program to return Americans to the moon, even though the US space agency, Congress and President Barack Obama have agreed not to proceed with it.
Old, rundown buildings are draining 300 million dollars a year from NASA in repair costs alone, and at least one space telescope project has run billions over budget, more than four times initial estimates.
The National Science Foundation, a 6.9 billion dollar federal agency that disperses grants to researchers, also came under the microscope as the House of Representatives held hearings on how to get rid of waste and fraud.
NSF is spending 500,000 dollars per year on refreshments at meetings, even though attendees are already compensated for food and other expenses, Inspector General Allison Lerner said.
Other problems include the way the agency spends half of its budget for contracts, or 204 million dollars, on pay-in-advance schemes in which contractors get paid ahead of time whether the work is finished or not.
"The risk of fraud, waste and abuse by NSF contractors will continue to be high until NSF implements fully adequate cost surveillance procedures," she told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice and Commerce.
A recent audit of large construction projects undertaken by NSF revealed more than 169 million dollars in "unallowable contingency costs," because "no barriers existed to prevent the funds from being drawn down in advance," she said.
"I am beginning to think it is a very sloppy operation out there," said Congressman Frank Wolf, the Republican chair of the subcommittee.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
NOT THE DONUTS! HAVE YOU GONE INSANE! :)
The National Science Foundation, a 6.9 billion dollar federal agency that disperses grants to researchers, ..
*-?
6.9 BILLION ??
“grants to researchers”. LOLOL
I’m gonna have a doughnut for that one..
Kill it!! Drive a stake through its heart, cut off its head and bury the body at a crossroads. Although if Reid, Pelosi , and 0bama were going ...
Moochelle should be all over this!.....................
This NASA artist's rendition received in 2007 shows the James Webb Space Telescope, a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror. The James Webb Space Telescope, has careened billions of dollars over budget and needs 500 million dollars more to be completed by 2015. (AFP/NASA/File)
Shut it down. NASA is a frill a bankrupt nation can no longer afford.
....and the rocket’s red glare!
the doughnuts bursting in air!
gave proof thru the night,
that the government was still there................
This is not the NASA that went to the moon anyway. This is a NASA that "reaches out" to jihadis and spends major bux on bogus environmental "research".
WHAT? Don't you know that "Man's future is in space." < /SARCASM>
I agree. Let those who want to be space cadets voluntarily fund NASA, and then let NASA live within THAT budget.
The GISS needs lots of attention from the budget axe, 100% attention!
lol
The Republicans can cut anything they want from the budget as far as I am concerned. There’s nothing currently that doesn’t need to be cut.
The more people that are unemployed from government the quicker the economic turnaround, and job growth for all.
Think a moment about what you are killing. These programs support the technical traction this country has struggled over 50 years to build. This technical and engineering base have developed many products currently supporting the US economy. Now in a fit of spendthrift you are going to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Better think carefully.
any mention of congressmen’s pork? any cutting of research of why a faces west to take a leak? no way
No money spent on doughnuts is ever wasted.
Good. Maybe the USAF JAG Corps will cancel the annual Keystone Leadership Summit this year. Lots of money spent on too much of the same old thing, year after year.
Colonel, USAFR
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.