WP: Defense Spending Is Overstated, GAO Report Says

[SillyGoose]

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 22, 2005; A23


The Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the fight against terrorism, limiting Congress's ability to oversee spending, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released yesterday.

The Defense Department has reported spending $191 billion to fight terrorism from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks through May 2005, with the annual sum ballooning from $11 billion in fiscal 2002 to a projected $71 billion in fiscal 2005. But the GAO investigation found many inaccuracies totaling billions of dollars.

"Neither DOD nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details of how appropriated funds are being spent," the report to Congress stated. The GAO said the problem is rooted in long-standing weaknesses in the Pentagon's outmoded financial management system, which is designed to handle small-scale contingencies.

The report said the Pentagon overstated the cost of mobilized Army reservists in fiscal 2004 by as much as $2.1 billion. Because the Army lacked a reliable process to identify the military personnel costs, it plugged in numbers to match the available budget, the report stated. "Effectively, the Army was reporting back to Congress exactly what it had appropriated," the report said.

more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/21/AR2005092102105_pf.html

[atommom]

1. Now where do you suppose all that money is going?

It's hard not to become a conspiracy theorist these days, if you read the news at all...

[jsamuel]

2. So: US Taxpayers Have No Idea Where Their Money Is Going

POOF!

[fasttense]

3. The WP sure knows how to put out misleading headlines

"Defense Spending Is Overstated, GAO Report Says" ???

This report says more than that. It says the Pentagon doesn't know what it is spending and Congress can't figure out how appropriated funds are being spent. Defense spending overstated my butt. Defense spending unknown is more accurate.

[SillyGoose]

4. I'll bet the next request for DOD funding will be approved, too,

despite no one being able to account for how the DOD is using the funds. Sickening.

[spanone]

7. Of course it will, and this is the Administration of Accountability....

:rofl:

[gratuitous]

8. Yeah, what the hell is up with that headline?

Thanks again, Washington Post, for obscuring the incompetence of the Republicans.

Although the next time some Republican gets on the tube, bloviating and harrumphing about all the money for hurricane relief, I'd give a shiny nickel to the first talking chucklehead who says, "Fair enough, sir. Can you tell me how much the United States has spent so far in Iraq? And what sort of accounting has Congress received of that money? Are you aware that some $9 billion went missing just before Paul Bremer skedaddled out of town? Wouldn't it be nice to have some of that money now, instead of having flushed it down the toilet on Lil George's excellent adventure in foreign imperialism?"

Yeah, I know. But sometimes I dream.

[hang a left]

5. There is also 1 Trillion dollars missing from a previous audit

that is right 1 trillion dollars. The defense appropriations are nothing other than grand theft.

[AlCzervik]

6. No more money then except to pay the troops thier salary and to fund the

VA benefits---no more war spending.

[jwirr]

9. Every government department has to be audited, but

bushie waived the audit for the DOD because they didn't know where much of the money was at. This is one of the biggest crimes against the people that they have committed. We have have a right to know what that department is doing in our name. Let's see didn't Tom Paxton have a song about $600 hammers?

[buzzsaw_23]

10. Would this be the same War Department

that has disappeared 2-3 TRILLION dollars since fiscal 2000?

nominated

[atommom]

11. Ironic, isn't it, that they're still short of money? They're soliciting

donations on the internet now for the reconstruction of Iraq. Where did that money really go?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2107090&mesg_id=2107090