Homeland Security Audit - 3 billion or more, gone

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-02-26 03:37pm

Bad news

Looks like we just outdid Canada. Coast Guard also missing a half a billion.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2004-02-26 03:46pm

Our defense branches made an art of losing track of money.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2004-02-26 03:49pm

I see the Prometheus' production is right on schedule...

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2004-02-26 04:10pm

SirNitram wrote:I see the Prometheus' production is right on schedule...

Isn't Macross's refit supposed to cost about ten billion dollars or so?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-02-26 04:48pm

pfft. everybody knows it's going into the supersoldier program! gotta get a captain america prototype working sometime this century! *dons tinfoil hat*

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2004-02-26 05:21pm

Darth_Zod wrote:pfft. everybody knows it's going into the supersoldier program! gotta get a captain america prototype working sometime this century! *dons tinfoil hat*

*dons own tinfoil hat*
It seems that the secret underground alien research base in Area 51 needed some quick extra cash. *removes tinfoil hat*

In all seriousness, though, where the hell does all this money go? Whose pockets got lined from this one?

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2004-02-26 06:03pm

Mayabird wrote:
Darth_Zod wrote:pfft. everybody knows it's going into the supersoldier program! gotta get a captain america prototype working sometime this century! *dons tinfoil hat*
*dons own tinfoil hat*
It seems that the secret underground alien research base in Area 51 needed some quick extra cash. *removes tinfoil hat*

In all seriousness, though, where the hell does all this money go? Whose pockets got lined from this one?

Knowing how corruption goes,lots of creeps have new condos in Florida or other sunny places.

Sharp-kun · Post by **Sharp-kun** » 2004-02-26 06:42pm

Some idiot probably fell for an e-mail scam

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-02-26 07:10pm

How do you lose $3.3bn? It's not like it's pocket change. You can't just accidentally lose it down the back of the sofa or drop it into a charity box.

Geeze, accounting must be just another funny term to these guys.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-02-26 08:00pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:How do you lose $3.3bn? It's not like it's pocket change. You can't just accidentally lose it down the back of the sofa or drop it into a charity box.

Geeze, accounting must be just another funny term to these guys.

It's actually pretty easy, actually, for a very large corporation or government agency to lose very large sums of money through accounting errors and such, but honestly these look like they were ear-marked for secret projects instead.

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2004-02-26 08:03pm

Master of Ossus wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:How do you lose $3.3bn? It's not like it's pocket change. You can't just accidentally lose it down the back of the sofa or drop it into a charity box.

Geeze, accounting must be just another funny term to these guys.
It's actually pretty easy, actually, for a very large corporation or government agency to lose very large sums of money through accounting errors and such, but honestly these look like they were ear-marked for secret projects instead.

Maybe . . . but it seems more likely that they lost it on the traditional money-suckers: overpriced unit costs(aka $10,000 hammers).

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-02-26 08:03pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:How do you lose $3.3bn? It's not like it's pocket change. You can't just accidentally lose it down the back of the sofa or drop it into a charity box.

Geeze, accounting must be just another funny term to these guys.

One of the things you learn pretty quickly in accounting school - as soon as you get a teacher who's honest about these kinds of things - is that what's reported on financial statements is something that can be entirely different then what is actually going on.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-02-26 08:04pm

Guardsman Bass wrote:
Master of Ossus wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:How do you lose $3.3bn? It's not like it's pocket change. You can't just accidentally lose it down the back of the sofa or drop it into a charity box.

Geeze, accounting must be just another funny term to these guys.
It's actually pretty easy, actually, for a very large corporation or government agency to lose very large sums of money through accounting errors and such, but honestly these look like they were ear-marked for secret projects instead.
Maybe . . . but it seems more likely that they lost it on the traditional money-suckers: overpriced unit costs(aka $10,000 hammers).

That was bad cost allocation, not actual overpayments.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2004-02-26 08:24pm

Joe wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:How do you lose $3.3bn? It's not like it's pocket change. You can't just accidentally lose it down the back of the sofa or drop it into a charity box.

Geeze, accounting must be just another funny term to these guys.
One of the things you learn pretty quickly in accounting school - as soon as you get a teacher who's honest about these kinds of things - is that what's reported on financial statements is something that can be entirely different then what is actually going on.

Yeah.....like loosing SIX billion instead of three.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-02-26 08:31pm

I'm curious if slicing the salami is still being done on megacorporations and government institutions.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-02-26 08:37pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I'm curious if slicing the salami is still being done on megacorporations and government institutions.

I don't know what slicing the salami is, but I guess it means cooking the books. Bookkeeping is just as much of a disaster as it has always been in the government, and while it isn't magnificent in the corporate world, companies are being pretty conservative with their numbers, upper-level managers are actually liable for inaccurate financial statements now, and things are generally getting better for a change.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-02-26 08:42pm

Joe wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:I'm curious if slicing the salami is still being done on megacorporations and government institutions.
I don't know what slicing the salami is, but I guess it means cooking the books. Bookkeeping is just as much of a disaster as it has always been in the government, and while it isn't magnificent in the corporate world, companies are being pretty conservative with their numbers, upper-level managers are actually liable for inaccurate financial statements now, and things are generally getting better for a change.

It's a term for those who handle financial transactions electronically. Given the modern computerisation of finances it's been easier for those working on such systems to direct a couple of pennies to their own anonymous account elsewhere. Given the billions that likely pass through every week, these small nuggets of wealth soon build up and produce quite the retirement fund.

My old computing tutor told me of one famous guy in the '80s who did this with a large firm and was simply fired but allowed to keep the cash so as to avoid embarassment to the company and bring about notice to the strange loophole to be exploited.

GySgt. Hartman · Post by **GySgt. Hartman** » 2004-02-26 09:33pm

... and these are only the billions they found out about ...

KrauserKrauser · Post by **KrauserKrauser** » 2004-02-27 01:24am

So for the money they "lost" can I get a Zat now?

How about a trip to the alpha site.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-02-27 09:48am

What secret project got a boost this time

Now seriously for a BIT: Any more detailed loss reports? where is the most money dissapearing?

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2004-02-27 09:52am

Ace Pace wrote:What secret project got a boost this time

Actually that may not be in humour. Whenever a national security agency "loses" billions of dollars, one does have to meander in that direction. I'm just not sure what would be under their authority in this regard, however. Mishandling of funds due to the reorganization is a more likely possibility due to the simple lack of a conceivable high-technology development project for Homeland Defence.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2004-02-27 09:55am

Like I said before, they need to "lose" the money so they can use it do refit the Macross. You'll see, shortly before 2009 they'll change the name to "Department of Homeworld Security" and roll out a new type of fighter jet that looks like a single-seat, updated F-14 derivative...

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2004-02-27 09:58am

Iceberg wrote:Like I said before, they need to "lose" the money so they can use it do refit the Macross. You'll see, shortly before 2009 they'll change the name to "Department of Homeworld Security" and roll out a new type of fighter jet that looks like a single-seat, updated F-14 derivative...

Ugh. You just made me remember that the Super Tomcat got cancelled.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-02-27 10:03am

Iceberg wrote:Like I said before, they need to "lose" the money so they can use it do refit the Macross. You'll see, shortly before 2009 they'll change the name to "Department of Homeworld Security" and roll out a new type of fighter jet that looks like a single-seat, updated F-14 derivative...

Scrap the Raptor, bring on the YF-21 and 19.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-02-27 11:08am

Iceberg wrote:Like I said before, they need to "lose" the money so they can use it do refit the Macross. You'll see, shortly before 2009 they'll change the name to "Department of Homeworld Security" and roll out a new type of fighter jet that looks like a single-seat, updated F-14 derivative...

Yes, and those two Mars probes that NASA sent over are really the first step for some colonies on Mars