12.1.04
"Rectification" of troublesome financial records: your tax money at work
From The Independent:
I wonder how many "$1,000 toilet seats" the Pentagon managed to get rid of with this "rectification" of their financial records.
From The Independent:
The Pentagon's auditors spent 1,139 hours altering their own files in order to pass an internal review, say investigators who found that the accounting sleuths engaged in just the kind of wasteful activity they are supposed to expose.This is an application of what might be called the "Arthur Andersen" auditing methodology.
When the auditors in the New York City office learnt in advance which files a review team would check, they spent the equivalent of 47 days doctoring and updating records from several audits, the Defence Department's inspector general discovered. Administrative staff, audit supervisors and other employees also participated.
The fabrication at the Defence Contract Audit Agency "certainly violates the spirit and intent" of government auditing standards and rules on ethical conduct, said the inspector general's report. The agency, which audits government contracts, is the same one that recently reported that Halliburton, Vice-President Dick Cheney's former company, may have overcharged the army $61m (?33m) for petrol in Iraq.
I wonder how many "$1,000 toilet seats" the Pentagon managed to get rid of with this "rectification" of their financial records.
