"People think the $12 billion in cash that's missing in Iraq is a big deal, they have no idea,"

[The Straight Story]

Senators explore federal finances at sparsely attended hearing

By Jenny Mandel
[e-mail]

Lawmakers at a Thursday hearing on federal financial management engaged in thoughtful discussion with top administration and accountability officials, but poor turnout -- with only two senators present -- suggests grim prospects for advancement on long-standing issues.

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., chaired the hearing and traded time with freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., an auditor by training who has shown a strong interest in federal accountability issues.

The senators quizzed witnesses David M. Walker, comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, and Linda Combs, the Office of Management and Budget's controller, on a range of issues that could come before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on financial management during the coming year. A subcommittee aide said Friday that attendance at the hearing was hurt by a conflicting briefing session with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

McCaskill said she was shocked to learn, since arriving in Washington, that agencies regularly fail financial audits and are not held to account. Five major agencies representing more than $500 billion in spending -- the Defense, Energy, Homeland Security and State departments, and NASA -- received disclaimers of opinion on their fiscal 2006 audits. Defense, the highest-budgeted offender, has repeatedly backed off timelines to put its books in order.

"People think the $12 billion in cash that's missing in Iraq is a big deal, they have no idea," McCaskill said, apparently referring to Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction reports that some Iraqi oil funds were not carefully tracked.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=36271&dcn=todaysnews

[havocmom]

1. govexec.com is a good site to keep an eye on

Real Public Servants are not happy with how the junta is destroying all agencies. The site is a good source.

K & R

[razors edge]

2. How many billions

Have they put away to buy off the M$M when the truth is being told to the world?

I have a feeling they have once again planned ahead for this possibility.

[alittlelark]

3. Posting a 'go nowhere' story

But it makes us all feel vindication.... sigh.

[soothsayer]

4. rumsfeld announced the missing 2.3 TRILLION onf 9-10-01---but

that story got eclipsed by other breaking news the next day. Pentagon can't find $2.3 trillion---oops. Where is THAT money?? OUR money!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. And did he ever get back to Cynthia McKinney? I think not. VIDEO of Cynthia grilling Rumsfeld

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2102260021948650345&sourceid=searchfeed

[jbnow]

13. Exactly. Billions IS "nothing" compared to trillions

The DOD auditors also "admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

We got a bit diverted from that stunning 9/10 admission because the next day happened but I have never forgotten it. As they talked about the cruder accounting in Iraq I kept expecting the pretty bad auditing here to be brought up.
I realize plane loads of cash missing is pretty suspicious but missing trillions at the DOD at American offices ought to pay for a lot of funny stuff too.

They balance the books by just writing it off. Trillions. Our money, not accounted for and not being publicly questioned.
I know we hear about $900 hammer type of waste but that is on the books. Where are the trillions that are not?

WHO is asking about that now?

[UpInArms]

5. and the fleecing of the taxpayer continues

more from your link:

Walker agreed that agencies' failure to enforce the act is a problem, but laid part of the blame at lawmakers' feet. He said effective financial management must include incentives for officials to "do the right thing," transparency to verify that they do, and accountability in case they don't. "One of the reasons that DoD has had the problems it has, is that Congress hasn't held them accountable," Walker told the senators.

[Porcupine]

6. An innumerate, illiterate public cannot comprehend....

how they are being bled dry by their government. Have no doubt that the miserable state of public education is by design.

[Jcrowley]

7. K&R n/t

[Toots]

8. Anyone that thinks the heist of twelve billion in cold hard cash is not a big deal

There is something seriously wrong with them. This is the largest cash heist in history and people have the gall to say it is no big deal because much more is being lifted by corruption and no bid contracts..Come on people wake the fuck up. This is a huge deal...

[sutz12]

9. That is NOT what was said...

If you actually read the post, the inference here is that the $12 billion is just the tip of the iceberg in the most wasteful, corrupt administration in history.

[Toots]

11. I read the words and I am able to understand their meaning..thank you

I know exactly what they were inferring and what they said. Do you? Let me quote them for you. "Anyone that thinks the theft of twelve billion is a big deal has no idea." I think the theft of twelve billion is a very big deal and I do in fact have some idea of what is going on. Talked down to lately???

[starroute]

12. Don't forget what Sy Hersh told us

http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/070305fa_fact_hersh

2007-02-25

The Pentagon consultant added that one difficulty, in terms of oversight, was accounting for covert funds. “There are many, many pots of black money, scattered in many places and used all over the world on a variety of missions,” he said. The budgetary chaos in Iraq, where billions of dollars are unaccounted for, has made it a vehicle for such transactions, according to the former senior intelligence official and the retired four-star general.

“This goes back to Iran-Contra,” a former National Security Council aide told me. “And much of what they’re doing is to keep the agency out of it.” He said that Congress was not being briefed on the full extent of the U.S.-Saudi operations. And, he said, “The C.I.A. is asking, ‘What’s going on?’ They’re concerned, because they think it’s amateur hour.”