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from here on January 23, 2008
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
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The War On
Waste
(CBS) On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared
war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the
Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.
He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.
"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said.
Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and
in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been
forgotten.
Just last week President Bush announced, "my 2003 budget calls for more than
$48 billion in new defense spending."
More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales
reports, while 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.
Another critic of Pentagon waste, Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan,
commanded the Navy's 2nd Fleet the first time Donald Rumsfeld served as
Defense Secretary, in 1976.
In his opinion, "With good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in
loose change in that building, without having to hit the taxpayers."
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