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JULY
26, 2001 AND SPENDING AT LEAST $615 MILLION OF TAXPAYERS' MONEY WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today blasted the Department of Defense for robbing the American people of hundreds of millions of dollars. During a Government Efficiency, Financial Management, and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee hearing, of which Schakowsky is the ranking member, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) testified that the Pentagon has violated the law last year in order to spend $615 million that it was not authorized to spend. The law states that any appropriated money that goes unspent after five years must be returned to the general treasury. GAO found that, for example, the Pentagon spent money in 1999 from a 1992 closed account. "I don't know what it's going to take to give top level Department of Defense officials a wake-up call. This infuriates me and I think the American people will be infuriated as well," Schakowsky said during the hearing. Schakowsky added that while hearings on the Pentagon's financial mismanagement have been held in Congress on numerous occasions, the Department has failed to establish "the necessary systems, procedures, policies, and controls, and take the necessary managerial actions." She concluded by urging her colleagues to oppose the Department of Defense's budget. "Until DOD can get its financial house in order, it should not be rewarded with an increase," Schakowsky said. Below
is Schakowsky's full Subcommittee statement:
"At
our hearing on the consolidated financial statement on March 30, 2001,
we learned that most agencies received "clean" or "qualified" audit opinions,
while DOD received a disclaimer. DOD's books were so fraught with
error that an audit could not even be accomplished. Then at our financial
management oversight hearing, on May 8, 2001, we heard that DOD was the
biggest culprit of financial mismanagement. Today we find that DOD
is violating the law. This is not to mention the two hearings in
March 2001 of the Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs,
and International Relations, on which I serve, on "Vulnerabilities to Waste,
Fraud and Abuse" which found that DOD was the most vulnerable of the federal
agencies. Or the hearings held by you, Mr. Chairman, and your Democratic
predecessors for well over a decade chronicling the serious financial mismanagement
at DOD.
"I do not know what it is going to take to give top level DOD personnel a wake up call. The General Accounting Office (GAO) has explained that DOD's prospects for the future do not look favorable. In GAO's High-Risk Series Update, GAO stated, After having performed hundreds of reviews of major weapons systems over the last 20 years, we have seen many of the same problems recur -cost increase, schedule delays, and performance shortfalls. These problems have proven resistant to reform in part because underlying incentives have not changed. "Mr. Chairman, because of its sheer size and the magnitude of money involved, one would think that DOD would have the most updated systems and controls in place and yet, it has the worst. I can only hope that DOD will not have to stand before this Subcommittee a fourth time this year because of financial mismanagement. I further hope that all members of the House will join me in opposing the Department of Defense's budget. Until DOD can get its financial house in order, it should not be rewarded with an increase." |
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