DoD misplaces trillions of dollars
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its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.
"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.
$2.3 trillion — that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.
"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.
"The director looked at me and said 'Why do you care about this stuff?' It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job," said Minnery.
He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.
"They have to cover it up," he said. "That's where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they can't do the job."
The Pentagon's Inspector General "partially substantiated" several of Minnery's allegations but could not prove officials tried "to manipulate the financial statements."
Twenty years ago, Department of Defense Analyst Franklin C. Spinney made headlines exposing what he calls the "accounting games." He's still there, and although he does not speak for the Pentagon, he believes the problem has gotten worse.
"Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year," he said.
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full story at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
That's $8,000 per man, women and child in this country - not per tax payer - that has just disappeared. And the DoD is so worried about our tax dollars that they can not figure out why anybody would even care about it disappearing.
Everett:
Wow, what a perfect reason to increase military spending. Give them money and they will magically make it disappear.
Seriously though, how can people not be remotely concerned? Asking someone why he could possibly care about large quantities of money suddenly vanishing is completely beyond my comprehension. If the department cannot be bothered to figure out where its funding has been going, it really doesn't deserve funding.
Bacon King:
That's outrageous. Hell, it's almost unbelievable.
○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└:
*Waits for MODU to come in and defend all of the missing money his company receieved*
Sam Spade:
Is there any reason why you're posting an article that's nearly 5 1/2 years old?
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