So DOD Wants to Save Money?

Building on yesterday's post about SecDef Bob Gates looking for dollars to save, here's this story about how well DOD manages the money it has.

An audit of a $9.1 billion fund of Iraqi oil proceeds showed that most American military agencies entrusted with spending the money on reconstruction projects failed to adhere to U.S. rules on how such money must be tracked and spent, the inspector general found.

U.S. officials failed to create bank accounts for $8.7 billion in the Development Fund for Iraq, as mandated by the Department of Treasury, creating "breakdowns in controls [that] left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss," according to the report, which is scheduled to be released Tuesday.

The audit is the latest probe to fault the U.S. government for mismanagement of Iraqi funds in the years following the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, which led to an insurgency and a years-long occupation.
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 The United States also has spent more than $50 billion in taxpayer money for reconstruction projects in Iraq.

Yeah. Come after USJFCOM and us contractors to save money. It's the easy thing to do. Ignore the billions of lost funds from the more obvious, but politically embarrassing sources. Forget about the obvious issue of fixing DOD's ridiculously broken financial system. And by all means, don't look at the operations and sustainment costs of major defense acquisition programs. We wouldn't want to try to address any systemic, long-term problems that might actually result in real cost-savings.

Comments

[sheerahkahn]

Oh, oh, oh, oh!

I know...how bout we unass Iraq and Afghanistan!

We'll save billions!

No?

[DJF]

“”””The United States also has spent more than $50 billion in taxpayer money for reconstruction projects in Iraq.””””

And I bet we would be lucky if $10 billion got spent in actual reconstruction projects. Large parts of Iraq still only get electricity for two hours a day.

[jeb]

...and they want to charge retirees more for their healthcare because they say they don't have enough money to pay for it...wonder why?