Pentagon to probe alleged waste, fraud in MIA unit

[Tx4obama]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - Aug 1, 4:23 PM EDT - The Pentagon is investigating alleged waste and misuse of taxpayer dollars by a military-led unit responsible for finding, recovering and identifying U.S. service members missing in action from past conflicts.

The investigation was disclosed Thursday at a Senate hearing held in response to an Associated Press story revealing an internal Pentagon report that said the search for soldiers' remains on foreign battlefields by the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command was inept, mismanaged, wasteful and dysfunctional.

Shortly after the AP report July 7, the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, issued a report saying the MIA accounting effort was hampered by weak leadership, infighting and a fragmented approach to planning. The report recommended a more streamlined chain of command and other organizational changes.

Together the reports prompted calls in Congress for action to ensure that the government live up to its pledge to account for as many MIAs as possible - a mission for which the public has spent tens of millions a year.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MIAS_IN_LIMBO?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-08-01-16-23-05

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McCASKILL, AYOTTE WANT CHANGES TO MIA PROGRAM. Something’s gotta give in the ineffective Pentagon program to find 83,000 missing troops from World War II, Vietnam and Korea, Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said Thursday. They’re pushing for a leadership change, Morning Defense author Juana Summers reports: “McCaskill … wanted to ‘give a loud wake-up call to everyone involved that it is time to put your squabbles aside for the good of the mission and the good of our nation.’ ... 'What bothered me most was reading about the petty squabbling between the three agencies in which each of you has been charged with leadership,’ Ayotte said. … Maj. Gen. W. Montague Winfield, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for POW and missing personnel affairs, said Thursday the Pentagon’s inspector general will investigate ‘the allegations of fraud, waste and abuse’ … The program came under new scrutiny after The Associated Press revealed an internal Pentagon study that described JPAC as inept, mismanaged and even, at times, corrupt. The study was suppressed by JPAC’s previous leaders.”
http://www.politico.com/proreport/0813/proreport11314.html

[Sunlei]

1. IMO there is something wrong with the GAO reports that congress & the Pent. use.

IMO, looks to me that special interests, contractor lobbys? or someone is 'fixing' those GAO reports. Deceiving Congress and the Pent.

Congress and the Pent. depend on the stats/facts in GAO reports to set policy and change or bring-in new laws.

Don't know how 'the reporters world' works, but Politico or other decent investigative journalists should team -up with the below group who have just uncovered fraud evidence on the GAO.



EWA (Chicago) – The Equine Welfare Alliance (EWA) and the Animal Law Coalition (ALC) announced today that they have irrefutable evidence showing that the Government Accountability Office fraudulently misrepresented horse abuse and neglect data in their report GAO 11-228. ref report http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/How_the_GAO_Deceived_Congress-final.pdf