Boston Globe: Oversight of war spending is faulted

Oversight of war spending is faulted

Congress, military spar on reporting

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | December 4, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department is preparing its seventh
supplemental budget request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
but congressional overseers and government watchdog groups are warning
that gaps in the Pentagon's accounting methods make it difficult to
monitor how the armed services have spent more than $300 billion since
the war on terror began.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has said that confusing
Pentagon accounting procedures, as well as bookkeeping lapses, have
complicated the legislative branch's ability to track billions of
dollars that have been spent on military contracts and operations.

The CRS, a branch of the Library of Congress, said those lapses have
increased the likelihood that funds could be misused.

The Defense Department, the report said, "has not provided an overall
reckoning of these funds by mission or military operation," adding
that Congress has yet to receive a "transparent accounting" of money
it has already allocated to the war effort. It said lawmakers need to
"to ensure accurate accounting in the future."