Government Accountability: The Saga Continues
Okay, dear readers, it's no secret that Government Inc. thinks the Government Accountability Office plays an important role in, well, accountability.
But today's raft of reports even surprises us, and not just because of the volume. Here below are a few selections that I think are worth reading:
For starters, the GAO auditors found that costs for the costly, the very costly, Joint Strike Fighter program rose by $23 billion last year alone. That means the price tag for this program approaches $1 trillion, for now. "We believe that JSF costs will likely be much higher than reported," the report says.
Here are some cool photos of the costly bird.
Here's another report from the security-industrial files. GAO auditors concluded that the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies bought a lot of personal information about Americans from private data brokers, without fully following through on what are known as Fair Information Practices.
And there's this report, which will come as a surprise to no one in the government: "DOD Needs to Reexamine Its Extensive Reliance on Contractors and Continue to Improve Management and Oversight."
"DOD's primary challenges have been to provide effective management and oversight. These challenges include failure to follow planning guidance, an inadequate number of contract oversight personnel, failure to systematically capture and distribute lessons learned, and a lack of comprehensive training for military commanders and contract oversight personnel. These challenges have led to negative operational and monetary impacts at deployed locations."
There's more -- Deepwater, anyone? -- but we'll save them for another day.
Is it just me, or is it hot in here?
By Robert O'Harrow |
March 12, 2008; 7:00 AM ET
gao
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Posted by: bernhard | March 12, 2008 09:49 AM
. . .and what do we need these ($trillion-dollar) planes for again? I keep forgetting. .
Posted by: Henry Browne | March 12, 2008 01:05 PM
Why the US has really gone broke Chalmers Johnson | There is an enormous anomaly in the US economy beyond the subprime mortgage crisis, the housing bubble and the prospect of recession: 60 years of misallocation of resources, and borrowings, to the establishment and maintenance of a military-industrial complex.
http://www.albertpeia.com
http://www.albertpeia.com/currentopics10108.htm
http://www.albertpeia.com/wallstreetlunacy10108.htm
Posted by: AL PEIA | March 12, 2008 09:28 PM
at this time of year -- tax time! -- when everyone sends their 1040 in, they should also send a little love note to their congressional reps.
The note could include something along the lines of, "since you have allowed ongoing waste by DoD, I plan to vote for your opponent in November. If you want my vote back, show you have some backbone and mandate improved oversight to reduce this waste!"
Posted by: upstate111 | March 13, 2008 12:01 PM
You know I am really getting tired of the government and politicians always talking about "accountability". Just what does this mean?? You see politicians caught in lies everyday, you see cost overruns in programs, and you see agency head all blathering on about accountability, but guess what? Nothing ever happens. Bad as that may be, the worst thing is that the news media (print, TV, web) just let these comments fly with absolutely no response.
I can certainly understand when the goof-up happens once, maybe a second time, and I might be willing to give them three strikes, but after that shouldn't someone in the media call them on it? Shouldn't something be done?
We as a society have gotten way too soft in handling mis-management. We let the agencies off the hook way too easy, same goes for politicians.
Posted by: RedRat | March 14, 2008 02:55 PM
how is an airplane going to defend me from anthrax?
Posted by: | March 26, 2008 01:23 PM
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where were they ( JSF ) on 9/11?