On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said. Posted on 02/01/2002 2:41:48 PM PST by Uncle Bill
THE WAR ON WASTE
Defense Department Cannot Account For 25% Of Funds — $2.3 Trillion
On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.
He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.
"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said.
Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been forgotten.
Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in new defense spending."
More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.
"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.
"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.
"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.
He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.
"They have to cover it up," he said. "That's where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they can't do the job."
The Pentagon's Inspector General "partially substantiated" several of Minnery's allegations but could not prove officials tried "to manipulate the financial statements."
Twenty years ago, Department of Defense Analyst Franklin C. Spinney made headlines exposing what he calls the "accounting games." He's still there, and although he does not speak for the Pentagon, he believes the problem has gotten worse.
"Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year," he said.
Another critic of Pentagon waste, Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan, commanded the Navy's 2nd Fleet the first time Donald Rumsfeld served as Defense Secretary, in 1976.
In his opinion, "With good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in loose change in that building, without having to hit the taxpayers."
©MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved.
1.1 Trillion Dollars Missing At Defense Department
3,400,000,000,000(Trillion) of Taxpayers' Money Is Missing
Federal Government and Congress To Lower Boom On Enron - Criminal, Fraud, Waste, Accounting Methods
BUSH SPENDING BILL LARGEST EVER
"How do we know we need $48 billion since we don't know what we're spending and what we're buying?"
Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
Thanks. I'm looking a little further back and working information back this way.
The United States of America - China Chamber of Commerce
200 West Madison Street Suite 2000, Chicago, IL 60606
Tel: (312) 368-0430 Fax: (312) 368-0418
Email:info@usccc.org
Board of Directors
Chairman Prescott S. Bush, Jr.
Prescott Bush Resources, Ltd
Crusader System Gets Boost From Pentagon
"United Defense Industries Inc., controlled by Carlyle Group Inc., would get $4.1 billion from the Pentagon over the next five years for its Crusader artillery system, according to internal budget documents."
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Posted on 9/30/01 8:10 AM Pacific by liberallarry
Executive Biography
John F. Harris
Managing Director and CFO
Mr. Harris is a Partner and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group and is based in Washington, DC. He serves as Carlyle’s Chief Financial Officer with overall responsibility for the firm’s investor reporting, internal controls and financial management. Prior to joining Carlyle in April 1997, Mr. Harris was a Vice President with Golub Associates, a private equity firm, where he focused on middle market principal investment transactions. Previously, Mr. Harris was a Senior Manager with 
Arthur Andersen, LLP. Mr. Harris is a graduate of the University of Virginia and is a CPA.
Source: The Carlyle Group, 2001
Former SEC Chairman Levitt to Join The Carlyle Group
dc.internet.com
Staff
May 9, 2001
Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is joining The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, on May 1. Levitt, who was the longest serving SEC chairman in history, will act as senior advisor to Carlyle on a variety of matters relating to the firm's private equity investment activities.
"Arthur Levitt has had an extraordinarily distinguished career in both business and government. As Chairman of the SEC, he demonstrated his strong leadership skills and his deep concerns about the importance of investor protections," Carlyle chairman Frank Carlucci said in making the announcement. "We are very fortunate to have Arthur affiliating with Carlyle, and we are confident that he will make a significant contribution to the firm."
The 25th chairman of the SEC, Levitt served from 1993 through March of this year.
In accepting the position, Mr. Levitt said, "I have known a number of the principals of Carlyle for many years, admire what they have built in the private equity area, and look forward to working in a professional capacity with them and their colleagues."
Carlyle, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's largest private equity firms, managing more than $13 billion through 12 different funds operating in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Japan. Since its inception in 1987, Carlyle has invested $5.5 billion of equity capital and achieved a 34 percent internal rate of return on that capital.
GEORGE BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT (Soft on Clinton and China)
China's Official B2B E-Commerce Portal, Host to George H.W. Bush, Trades Forced-Labor Products
BREAKING: Bush Grants Permanent Trade Status to China
Is Pentagon Muzzling Its Export Watchdogs? - George W. Bush President
A big hoo-rah for your post.
I was all prepared to express my outrage over the government not keeping better tabs on my tax dollars, until I came to your post. What I derived from your post is that, while there may be some small percentage of fraud, most of the problem comes down to inaccurate bookkeeping. While corporations always seem to know the exact bottom line for depreciating their assets, and for keeping records of assets that are depleted, our military has problems in doing the same. (I have to wonder if each and every bomb recently dropped in Afghanistan has been recorded somewhere on some base's books.)
Because of its vast size, no one ever bothered in the past to hold the Department of Defense accountable for the expenditures of each and every minute base, plus accounting procedures varied.
As the mother of a son who recently joined the navy, I appreciate your defense of the military all the more.
I'm waiting for SOMEONE to link the 2.3 Trillion dollars---(Thats $2,300,000,000,000!) to the Last 8 years of The Clinton Legacy.Someone has to say it,so there,I said it.The Average citizen cannot Fathom that much money and EVERY TAXPAYER should be angry about this.This is really wrong!So that's where Cohen got the money for that big going away party in Beverly Hills.The Skunk!
Hehehe. You're right. Conservatives and Republicans don't stand for small government, the Constitution or the elimination of fraud, waste and abuse.
I am an accountant, and you are correct. It frustrates me no end that I have to balance and account for funds, because people trust me to do it properly, and at the same time the government has no clue how much of my money they brought in or where it went.
And then it has the unmitigated gall to use the force of law to make me send more each year. Time for another Boston Tea Party?
Carolyn
Agency or Department Cards Avg. Write-offs Agency for Int. Development 2,582 1.13 857
Dept of Agriculture 157,752 1.67 1,346,735
Dept of Commerce 36,601 0.93 1,106,907
Dept of Education 3,966 0.86 131,517
Dept of Energy 19,815 1.27 361,107
Dept of HHS 46.061 0.73 1,321,797
Dept of HUD 8,288 0.81 438,879
Dept of Interior 82,835 1.22 1,153,329
Dept of Justice 140,244 1.11 2,250,119
Dept of Labor 19,085 1.19 408,650
Dept of State 13,835 0.50 562,474
Air Force 609,778 1.21 10,844,789
Army 538,271 0.76 31,051,019
Navy 450,907 0.81 12,846,875
Dept of Transportation 119,465 1.87 2,711,110
Dept of Treasury 132,854 0.81 743,495
Dept of Veterans Affairs 109,284 0.49 838,150
Environ. Protection Agency 18,370 1.02 217,381
Federal Emerg. Manag. Agency 13,391 2.59 708,873
General Services Admin 24,190 1.73 219,953
NASA 24,949 1.32 125,025
Nuclear Regulatory Comm 3,163 1.11 19,301
Small Business Admin 5,124 1.26 234,916
Social Security Admin 4,262 0.07 694,395
Source: General Services Administration; Office of Personnel Management; Department of Defense
"And then it has the unmitigated gall to use the force of law to make me send more each year. Time for another Boston Tea Party?"
Carolyn. In all seriousness, you would go to prison if you did this, wouldn't you? Boston Tea Party indeed!
General David Walker is a Clinton Appointee with a 15-year term. He was appointed in 1998..." GAO also announced Friday that the 24 major agencies covered under the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act must form audit committees, but officials are still hammering out the details of that mandate.
The General has had three years to tighten up the way government agencies do their book-keeping and still has not done the job. Give him three more months to put a stop to the credit cards abuse; keep track of all money spent otherwise throw the man out and put better equipped people in his slot!
During the Clinton years Politically Correct people were given high profile jobs whether they were qualified or not. The problem of accounting deteriorated profoundly under them. Like kids in a candy shop, they spent wildly while improving their lifestyles with expensive new toys.
Some group ought to audit the GAO, which can't account for the money it spends; millions are lost in that department. The Education Department, HUD and Health and Welfare are trillions in unaccounted dollar abuse for starters, it isn't just the Pentagon.
Since Rumsfeld had the courage to start this, lets get behind him but demand the other governmental agencies clean up their departments. Make the heads of these departments disclose their books twice a year to the taxpaying public! President Bush made a huge mistake in 'throwing' more money into education without knowing where unaccounted for dollars were, that is one department that is truly egregious in its book keeping. Too many department heads get away with this sloppy bookkeeping; no private concern could stay in business with these criminal practices. Enron, it seems is but a small fish in a bigger pool of corruption.
"As a retired Navy Dept. Civil Service employee, I can verify that there is NO ACCOUNTABILITY in the U.S. government. The Federal government does not KEEP BOOKS (accounting systems of checks and balances - i.e. debits and credits accounting records). All they do is keep RECORDS. Just like Congress - all these agencies deal with is the BUDGET. What is budgeted and what is spent are horses of another color. Of course, our State governments are in the same mess - as well as our Local governments. The Education Dept. all the way down to the Local School Boards (or should I say County Commissioners) have no idea on how to show any kind of "accountability" on how these appropriated funds are to be spent. THE REAL QUESTION IS, WHEN WILL AMERICANS DEMAND FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY?"
57 Posted on 09/10/2001 07:32:16 PDT by BusyBee
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