GOVERNMENT LACKS SUFFICIENT TRACKING OF SPENDING

By M.S.Welles

Rep. Stephen Lynch (Mass.D) says that because the federal government is doing very little to track spending and repayments under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) it's necessary for the government to figure out some way to provide both transparency and accountability to American taxpayers.

Information about TARP funding is collected b y 25 government agencies but there is no central database for storing and retrieving the information.

Several representatives of technology vendors testified before the House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations telling the members of the subcommittee that there is existing technology that would permit the tracking and analyzing of the TARP funds.

Whether or not the testimony given will sway the government to authorize the expenditure of funds to obtain, install and train personnel on the recommended software, remains to be seen.