Pentagon Investigates Movement of Funds

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19300-2003Sep29.html

The Pentagon's internal auditor is investigating allegations that Defense Department officials tried to hide $20 million from Congress by temporarily putting the funds in the budget of the Special Operations Command, Defense officials said yesterday.

The Pentagon's comptroller is Dov Zakheim, who during the 2000 presidential election was one of the Bush campaign's "Vulcans," or advisers on national security issues. He did not respond to calls to his office.

[Homer12]

1. Another Scandal

I'm so surpirsed?

Under the Bush Administration we have a contunal flow of some fine quality scandals, unfrountunaly they never really get covered by the "liberal" media.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

2. $20 million? What about the 2 TRILLION they couldn't find

when looking over their past budgets? It was a story last summer drowned out by the drums of war. Anyone remember that? I think it was actually 2.3 trillion.

[JewelDigger]

4. If Congress could force the Pentagon to 'find' the 2 trillion....

...then they wouldn't need the $87 billion and there would be 'change' to spare, right?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. Heck not just that but we could afford to bomb Iran and N Korea

and Syria and rebuild ALL of them :D

[UpInArms]

3. that $20 Million is chickenfeed

where is the missing $2.3 Trillion???

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

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.