US war spending 'out of control'
Pastor Dale Morgan
US war spending 'out of control'*
From correspondents in Washington
May 28, 2008 09:03am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
THE Pentagon's internal watchdog office has warned in a report to
Congress made public that its auditors are unable to keep pace with a
ballooning US defense budget.
The rapid growth of the defense budget to more than $US600 billion ($626
billion) "leaves the department increasingly more vulnerable to fraud,
waste, and abuse," the Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General said.
The March 2008 report said the office's ability to adequately cover high
risk areas and defense priorities "has become strained due to the fact
that our staffing levels have remained nearly constant".
"Furthermore, the demand for IG services to support the GWOT (global war
on terrorism) and the ongoing operations in Southwest Asia has forced us
to readjust priorities," it said.
The result has been "gaps in coverage in important areas, such as major
weapons systems acquisition, health care fraud, product substitution,
and defense intelligence agencies".
The agency said that to expand its work force it needed $25 million more
in funding in 2009 than the $247 million requested by the administration.
The report was made public by the Project on Government Oversight, a
private non-profit group dedicated to exposing waste and corruption in
government.
Nick Schwellenbach, the group's national security investigator, said,
"it's stunning that we've been spending so much for so long with so
little oversight".
Whereas in 1997 there was one auditor for each $642 million in Pentagon
contracts, in 2007 the ratio was one auditor for each $2.03 billion in
contracts, according to the report.
It said $152 billion in money spent on weapons acquisitions in 2007
received insufficient audit coverage.