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2007.09.15

Homeland Security and Defense departments could be making everything up

A few federal agencies are not being audited as they should be in order to wipe out fraud, waste and mismanagement:

Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outsideauditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor thenewer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable towaste, fraud and abuse. An Associated Press review shows that the twodepartments' financial records are so disorganized and inconsistentthat they have repeatedly earned "disclaimer" opinions, meaning thatthey simply cannot be fully audited.

"It means we really can't put any faith in the numbers they use," said RossRubenstein, who teaches public administration at Syracuse University'sMaxwell School.

What a mess.  This is in direct violation of federal law:

The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 requires,among other things, that the financial systems of major federalagencies "comply substantially" with generally accepted accountingstandards. Each year, those agencies are required to release results ofoutside audits.

It should not come as a surprise when an ideology that is based on the downsizing government fails at governing.

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Comments

Just to blow off some steam: This kind of thing, as with Pentagon misspending and ad infinitum in governemnt - really ticks me off when we know all too well how the IRS nazi's treat average citizens, and the different rules for the less monetarily average.

The whole hideous money mess makes me VERY ANGRY!

And while touching on the subject of the less monetarily average: has everyone seen Greenwald's "Selling Iraq"?

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