Biggest F-Up in Government History?

[cmhargrove]

It's just so hard to comprehend. This is a story that should be insanely huge, and it will probably pass by un-noticed for the most part.

Absolutely insane...

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/me...missing.money/

Excerpt:
The U.S. official in charge of investigating fraud in Iraq said Monday he is carrying out a third audit to see if it might determine what happened to $6.7 billion in cash that was flown into Iraq eight years ago and is now missing.
"It has not been properly accounted for," said Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.
The money -- which belonged to Iraq -- was part of a sum of $20 billion that was shipped into war-torn Baghdad in bricks of hundred-dollar bills. They were shrink-wrapped and stored in the Central Bank of Iraq to pay for reconstruction.
"Our job as auditors is to find out how that was used, whether it was wasted or fraudulently misused, as we fulfill our mandate to get to a conclusory answer," he said.
Bowen blamed the system that existed then. "The system was too loose and unregulated in 2003 and 2004," he said. "Billions of dollars being flown into, effectively, a war zone; an insurgency exploding into a civil war; and fairly continuous turnover in government ministers and ministry personnel presented an atmosphere that some have described as Wild West-like and I think that's a fair description."

[broncocalijohn]

Some will say what is 6 billion dollars when we are trillions of dollars in debt. Well, you can go before the Iraq war and speed on through with the $6 billion. Someone in that small circle is very rich right now as for some Iraq high ups too.

[mkporter]

I've got most of it in my garage. Kinda sucks that we have to park our cars outside, but I live in San Diego, so I guess it isn't that big of a deal. It would be a big pain if I lived in Colorado and had to scrape the ice off in the mornings.

[TailgateNut]

Must be Obama's fault. He should have had the "foresight" to prevent this while the "Evil Twins" were in office. Someone should also check the bank account of the "Bald Evil One".

[Garcia Bronco]

14 trillion in debt and we are worried about 6 billion. Focus and context. I don't like that 6 billion is unaccounted for, but get some perspective federal government

[broncswin]

Originally Posted by TailgateNut

Must be Obama's fault. He should have had the "foresight" to prevent this while the "Evil Twins" were in office. Someone should also check the bank account of the "Bald Evil One".

FAIL

[TailgateNut]

Originally Posted by broncswin

FAIL

You related to the Evil one or just think he did an awesome job of ****ing our country in the ass?

[schaaf]

It is impossible for a President to succeed in present day America, regardless of party

[vancejohnson82]

Originally Posted by TailgateNut

Must be Obama's fault. He should have had the "foresight" to prevent this while the "Evil Twins" were in office. Someone should also check the bank account of the "Bald Evil One".

are you getting paid "$1 billion" for "each" quotation mark you "use?"

[Shananahan]

Probably the entire Cold War or something. And there was that one thing in Vietnam. Didn't they also lose Kennedy's brain, assuming you believe all the nonsense surrounding his assassination?

Six billion dollars is nothing, really.

[Quoydogs]

George Bush !

[bronco militia]

is the LA times making up the amount of money missing?

[bronco militia]

Auditor Disputes Report About $6.6 Billion in Iraq Money Being Stolen


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...#ixzz1PHPjq3XW

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...-being-stolen/

[misturanderson]

Originally Posted by bronco militia

Auditor Disputes Report About $6.6 Billion in Iraq Money Being Stolen


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...#ixzz1PHPjq3XW

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...-being-stolen/

Doesn't change the fact that it's missing.

[cmhargrove]

Originally Posted by misturanderson

Doesn't change the fact that it's missing.

It's just something about sending bricks of cash into a war zone - with no oversight. It's just hard to fathom that a massive load of cash like that would just "disappear."

[Smiling Assassin27]

Must be Obama's fault.

Obama's gonna have his own accountability issues with Porkulus and TARP. Especially considering he pledged to be transparent and devoid of waste and fraud.

As for the $6B, it certainly doesn't qualify as 'Biggest F-Up In Gov't History' but effectively demonstrates the lack of accountability at the highest levels of government. Yet some still wanna give these leeches MORE of our dollars for projects and wars like these.

[gyldenlove]

I love how 6 billion is nothing, but spending a few million dollars on research funding on long term projects is a waste.

In fact, if any of you can find a single post on the current budget that wastes more money without producing a single benefit I would like to hear from you.

[Beantown Bronco]

Originally Posted by gyldenlove

In fact, if any of you can find a single post on the current budget that wastes more money without producing a single benefit I would like to hear from you.

How much did Bob and jhns' education cost taxpayers?

[manchambo]

Isn't this the plot to that A-Team movie?

[Jetmeck]

Putting BUSH/CHENEY in office has to be high on the list of **** ups. After all hind sight is 20/20 and if you cannot see the utter disatrrous results that we will be paying for years and years by those two crooks then you are simply hopeless.

[mkporter]

Originally Posted by Smiling Assassin27

Obama's gonna have his own accountability issues with Porkulus and TARP. Especially considering he pledged to be transparent and devoid of waste and fraud.

As for the $6B, it certainly doesn't qualify as 'Biggest F-Up In Gov't History' but effectively demonstrates the lack of accountability at the highest levels of government. Yet some still wanna give these leeches MORE of our dollars for projects and wars like these.

"porkulus" is pretty transparent if you ask me:
http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency...breakdown.aspx

Put in your zip code, and see where the $$ is going in your area:
http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency...edDataMap.aspx

I don't doubt there is some waste in a program of this size, but it's hard to imagine how it could have been much more transparent.

[Smiling Assassin27]

Originally Posted by mkporter

"porkulus" is pretty transparent if you ask me:
http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency...breakdown.aspx

Put in your zip code, and see where the $$ is going in your area:
http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency...edDataMap.aspx

I don't doubt there is some waste in a program of this size, but it's hard to imagine how it could have been much more transparent.

Hey, if that's all you demand of your government in accounting for $1T in taxpayer monies, so be it. That site gives NO information about whether the money allocated to those projects was used fraudulently or properly, nor does it show an accounting of a single cent. An 'overview' of funding is hardly an accounting. Secondly, if they report the spending of money like they did jobs created/saved, then you're gonna have a big problem.

The way it could've been more transparent was in demanding that states and localities provide sufficient oversight. Instead, states REDUCED oversight due to budget problems. Believe me, you will soon be seeing abuse, fraud, and larceny resulting from the ARRA. Factor in that 4000 Stimulus recipients got $24B in funds while owing over 750M in delinquent corporate, payroll and other assorted taxes and you just may have a compliance problem.

The GAO study asserts that officials from most of the states surveyed “expressed concerns regarding the lack of Recovery Act funding provided for accountability and oversight. Due to fiscal constraints, many states reported significant declines in the number of oversight staff — limiting their ability to ensure proper implementation and management of Recovery Act funds.”
Because the economic downturn has led to “fiscal constraints, many states reported significant declines in the number of oversight staff, limiting their ability to ensure proper implementation and management of Recovery Act funds.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...ment-watc.html

[That One Guy]

Let an Iraqi get close to it and they'll steal every bit.

They're as trustworthy as my dog if I laid a fat juicy steak next to his food bowl and asked him not to eat it while I stepped outside.

[elsid13]

the key words in the story are "It has not been properly accounted for,". Meaning that proper paper work was not on hand, not that individuals didn't know where the monies went or didn't have a local Excel spreadsheet tracking payment, rather that there was no uniform central accounting system were everything was entered.

Yes there was waste and fraud, but you need remember this was an audit team and they base everything on official records and comparing what really happened to what written process were. The question will anyone be turned for Federal Prosecution

[mkporter]

Originally Posted by Smiling Assassin27

Hey, if that's all you demand of your government in accounting for $1T in taxpayer monies, so be it. That site gives NO information about whether the money allocated to those projects was used fraudulently or properly, nor does it show an accounting of a single cent. An 'overview' of funding is hardly an accounting. Secondly, if they report the spending of money like they did jobs created/saved, then you're gonna have a big problem.

The way it could've been more transparent was in demanding that states and localities provide sufficient oversight. Instead, states REDUCED oversight due to budget problems. Believe me, you will soon be seeing abuse, fraud, and larceny resulting from the ARRA. Factor in that 4000 Stimulus recipients got $24B in funds while owing over 750M in delinquent corporate, payroll and other assorted taxes and you just may have a compliance problem.



http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...ment-watc.html

Like I said, I don't doubt there will be waste and fraud. I have no doubt that there could be better oversight. I'm talking transparency, though. Your suggestions don't improve transparency, they improve accountability. Don't you find the fact that you can easily look online and see where the $391B is being spent, down to subcontracts for hundreds of dollars, impressive? I've never seen something like that from the federal government before.

For instance, a look in my area shows that West Coast General received a contract of $5.7M, of which $430k has been invoiced as of March. They are performing physical plant upgrades (with the purpose of improving energy efficiency) at the Schwartz Federal building in downtown San Diego.

Recipient Name WEST COAST GENERAL CORPORATION
Recipient Address 13685 STOWE DR STE B
Recipient City POWAY
Recipient State California
Recipient Zip 920648824
Amount of Award $5,719,343
Funds Invoiced/Received $427,939

http://www.recovery.gov/Transparency...Type=Contracts

Now it would be really cool if they linked in detailed project updates as well as any audits that have been done, but you've got to start somewhere.