goofyfish
05-30-02, 08:20 AM
This is disgusting ( http://www.nypost.com/business/48846.htm). Is there any excuse?* John Crudele, The New York Post -- May 28, 2002
WASHINGTON complains about deceptive corporate accounting. But the government last year misplaced an incredible $17.3 billion because of shoddy bookkeeping, or worse.
Let me put that into numbers so you can fully appreciate the amount. It's $17,300,000,000 - the price of a few dozen urban renewal projects, a nice size fleet of warships or about half the tax cut that everyone made such a fuss about last summer.
Disappeared. Gone. Nowhere to be found.
In fact, the government's accounting was so atrocious that the General Accounting Office - another Washington agency - refused to give an opinion about the honesty of the government's booksSo, put this into scale. If they spend $1.7 Trillion, then $17 Billion would be 1% of their total spending. In any corporation, that level of error would be totally unacceptable.
What is truly ironic is that the government punishes companies that keep shoddy books yet its own books apparently wouldn't pass the same standard that private companies are supposed to keep. But The government has no reason to worry about accounting. If they fall short, they will just take more tax money. Regrettably, we poor taxpayers do not call them on it when they blow the budget, so we end up with a system that wastes amazing amounts of money with basically no checks on how it is spent.
$17.3 billion? Why, that's a whole Pentagon hammer! ;)
Peace.
* For government mismanagement - not for reading The NY Post.
WASHINGTON complains about deceptive corporate accounting. But the government last year misplaced an incredible $17.3 billion because of shoddy bookkeeping, or worse.
Let me put that into numbers so you can fully appreciate the amount. It's $17,300,000,000 - the price of a few dozen urban renewal projects, a nice size fleet of warships or about half the tax cut that everyone made such a fuss about last summer.
Disappeared. Gone. Nowhere to be found.
In fact, the government's accounting was so atrocious that the General Accounting Office - another Washington agency - refused to give an opinion about the honesty of the government's booksSo, put this into scale. If they spend $1.7 Trillion, then $17 Billion would be 1% of their total spending. In any corporation, that level of error would be totally unacceptable.
What is truly ironic is that the government punishes companies that keep shoddy books yet its own books apparently wouldn't pass the same standard that private companies are supposed to keep. But The government has no reason to worry about accounting. If they fall short, they will just take more tax money. Regrettably, we poor taxpayers do not call them on it when they blow the budget, so we end up with a system that wastes amazing amounts of money with basically no checks on how it is spent.
$17.3 billion? Why, that's a whole Pentagon hammer! ;)
Peace.
* For government mismanagement - not for reading The NY Post.