Sticker Shock And Awe At The Pentagon

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
May 30, 2008
A lot more spending and far too little oversight, those are the bottom lines of two disturbing new reports on the Pentagon’s flawed-to-broken budgeting process. The Pentagon’s inspector general plaintively reported this week that his staff is overwhelmed. For good reason. The Pentagon’s budget has doubled since 2000, while the number of auditors has remained static.
An auditor previously responsible for vetting $642 million in defense contracts must now somehow deal with more than $2 billion worth. That’s proving impossible in practice. According to the inspector general, of $316 billion spent last year on costly weapons acquisitions, a mere half received “sufficient” auditing.
And for those who believe the private sector can do it better, another daunting report to Congress — disclosed by the private Project on Government Oversight — laid bare the shoddy accounting procedures practiced by far too many private contractors who are the real beneficiaries of the Iraq war. The Pentagon concluded that boondoggling companies often ignore the government’s reporting rules — and still get paid.
According to the study, the words “Iraqi Salary Payment” were the cryptic explanation for a $320.8 million contract for “1,000” anonymous workers — an incredible $320,000 per laborer. And then there was the United States Treasury check for $5,674,075.00 paid to the Al Kasid Specialized Vehicles Trading Company in Baghdad for services the company didn’t bother to describe.
And no comprehensible records have been found for $134 million in payments to allies in Britain, Poland and South Korea. They were dubbed the “coalition of the willing to be paid,” in the apt words of Representative Henry Waxman, whose government oversight committee has been trying to get a handle on military waste and fraud.
The full scope of the waste remains a mystery, but some immediate reforms have been proposed that Congress must mandate without delay. One “clean contracting” provision would levy stronger competitive bidding requirements and better protection for whistle-blowers. Congress has already approved an additional $24 million to hire more auditors. But this meets only half the manpower need, according to the Pentagon’s inspector general. Congress should be willing to spend a little more to find out how much of the taxpayers’ dollars are being wasted. That is what we call a sound budgeting decision.
 
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