Watchdogs Chide Treasury on Bailout - WSJ.com

Watchdogs Chide Treasury on Bailout - WSJ.com: "In separate testimony, the Government Accountability Office and a congressional oversight panel said Treasury has doled out billions of dollars to banks with no way to ensure they comply with government-mandated restrictions, or they are using the money to help increase the availability of credit to consumers.
The four-person oversight panel, in its first report to Congress, said it found Treasury has 'administrated the [Troubled Asset Relief Program] without seeking to monitor the use of funds provided to specific financial institutions.' (Read the full oversight panel report)
'Treasury cannot simply trust that the financial institutions will act in the desired ways; it must verify,' the 38-page report said.
Gene Dodaro, acting comptroller general of the U.S., acknowledged the program has been in place only a short time, but said GAO 'found that Treasury has yet to address a number of critical issues.'
These include basic problems such as how to ensure banks are complying with executive compensation and dividend restrictions, and the broader issue of how to measure the success of the program. Treasury has also failed to formalize plans for the upcoming transition to the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, and has not established a system of internal controls.
'Until these issues are resolved, there is heightened risk that the interests of the government and taxpayers may not be adequately protected and that [Treasury] may not achieve its mission in an effective and efficient manner,' Mr. Dodaro said in prepared remarks before the House Financial Services Committee."

Here is another example of what historians will be looking at sometime in the future. And it will show the incompetence and contempt for the American Taxpayer by the Bush administration in a major way.