Rumsfeld Inherits Financial Mess (DOD loses 1.1 TRILLION)

InsightMag.com ^ | Unknown | Kelly Patricia O'Meara

[FormerLurker]

I think that I remember hearing that Hilliary's world travels were billed to the DOD. Did she travel THAT much??

I don't think even Hillary and Marco's wife (Isabella?) put together could spend that much if given their own 747 and a platinum credit card issued by the US Mint.

[FormerLurker]

"We laid a few traps," chirps a happy Clinton aide.....

Yep, we'll be haunted by Clinton and his so-called "legacy" for years to come...

[FormerLurker]

This is the SAME crowd that allowed military personnel to be forced onto WELFARE,

It's obvious that it wasn't the troops who pocketed the money, that's for sure..

[StockAyatollah]

They also have a habit of changing their minds in mid-program and making changes that double the cost and make the whole thing un-workable. California does the same thing.

I worked on a simulation project that has had 4 (or maybe 5) software re-architectures. Hundreds of millions of dollars, and several years later and they are still not done. Government contracting means never having to be accountable.

[FormerLurker]

Trafficant went down for much less than this...

[lwoodham]

Given, that a stack of $1000.00 bills equal to a million dollars is 8.5 inches high, then:

1 billion $ would be 8.5 x 1000 = 8,500 inches high
1 trillion $ would be 8500 x 1000 = 8,500,000 inches high

or
1 trillion $ would be 8,500,00/12 = 708,333 feet high
1 trillion $ would be 708,333/5289 = 134.15 miles high

1 trillion in $100 bills would be = 1341.5 miles high
1 trillion in $1 bills would be = 134,150 miles high

[FormerLurker]

As the average distance of the Earth to the moon is 239,000 miles, $1 trillion dollars in $1 bills would be 0.56 of the distance (or a little over halfway) to the moon.

[hove]

That's a $trillion of our hard earned tax dollars STOLEN.....not lost!!

[Jonathon Spectre]

Assuming the average working life is 30 years, the average annual income is $34,000 and the average federal tax on that income is $6,830, nearly 5.5 million Americans will work their entire lives to pay $1.1 trillion in taxes.

>growling<

Speechless.

[babble-on]

is this article a full year old??? you should mention that when you post something. your link don't work

[Eagle74]

$1 trillion? this is impossible, the entire DOD budget has been around $300 billion a year for a decade. Is this article telling me that 3 and a third times the yearly DOD budget is missing. They probably mean $1 billion is missing and while still alot of money it's more resonable.

[babble-on]

Moonies appear to have learned the journalist's creed, first simplify, then exaggerate. I wish I could tell what this article is saying. I am very interested in it. Unfortunately it was either written by an idiot, or was intentionally designed to be incomprehensible.

[FormerLurker]

$1 trillion? this is impossible,

No, it is not impossible apparently. From US Government Can't Account For Billions Of Spent Tax Dollars ...

In a report to the DoD comptroller, Undersecretary of Defense Dov Zakheim, acting Assistant Inspector General for Auditing David Steensma wrote: "We reported that DOD processed $1.1 trillion in unsupported accounting entries to DOD Component financial data used to prepare departmental reports and DOD financial statements for FY2000. For FY2001 we did not attempt to quantify amounts of unsupported accounting entries; however, we did confirm that DOD continued to enter material amounts of unsupported accounting entries to the financial data."

[lavaroise]

And they talk about ENRON's mismanagement?

Put social security under your mattress.

[lavaroise]

... or social security in buying a gun.

[FormerLurker]

Moonies appear to have learned the journalist's creed, first simplify, then exaggerate

Are you saying that the OIG for the DOD is a Moony?

The DOD OIG report can be read by clicking below...

COMPILATION OF THE FY 2000 DOD AGENCY-WIDE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

[FormerLurker]

$1 trillion? this is impossible

Actually, that was 1.1 TRILLION, not including another $477.1 BILLION that they didn't bother looking into....

An interesting excerpt from the COMPILATION OF THE FY 2000 DOD AGENCY-WIDE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS...

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service processed approximately $4.4 trillion in department-level accounting entries to DoD Component financial data used to prepare departmental reports and DoD financial statements for FY 2000. Of the $4.4 trillion in department-level accounting entries, $2.8 trillion were supported with proper research, reconciliation, and audit trails. However, department-level accounting entries of $1.1 trillion were unsupported or improper. We did not review another $477.1 billion in department-level accounting entries. The DoD Agency-Wide financial statements for FY 2000 were subject to a high risk of material misstatement. The magnitude of department-level accounting entries required to compile the DoD financial statements for FY 2000 highlights the difficulties and problems that DoD encountered in attempting to produce accurate and reliable financial information using existing systems and processes (finding A).

[FormerLurker]

is this article a full year old???

It can't be, as the OIG report was issued in September of 2001. The article was undated, so that's why I posted the date as UNKNOWN...

[FormerLurker]

In fact, if as the article states, DOD Deputy Inspector General Robert Lieberman presented this report to Congress in May, and the report was written in September 2001, then the article is about 3 months old.