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Bailout Oversight: 'It's a Mess'

$700B plan operates without watchdog as lawmakers spat

By Jim O'Neill, Newser User

Posted Nov 13, 2008 8:34 AM CST

(Newser) – More than one-third of the $700 billion bailout package has been committed, but the program is operating without any government oversight, reports the Washington Post. The provisions intended to monitor the disbursement for corruption and waste are being overlooked, and no one has been nominated to the newly created post of special inspector general for the plan.

"I don't think anyone understands right now how we're going to do proper oversight of this thing," the Treasury Department's inspector general says of the 6-week-old program. "Considering how taxpayers' money around Washington isn't respected, a day shouldn't go by without having an inspector general checking on it," says Chuck Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. presides over a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson calls on a reporter during a news conference at the Treasury Department in Washington, Nov. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. (AP Photo/Matthew Putney, File)

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It's a mess. I don't think anyone understands right now how we're going to do proper oversight of this thing."

- Eric M. Thorson
Treasury Department inspector general

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Bailout Oversight: 'It's a Mess'