[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15036-15037]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        NO ACCOUNTING FOR WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE IN GOVERNMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, as we begin our debate in our committees on 
reforming Medicare, one of the issues that will be highlighted is the 
waste, fraud and abuse that has plagued this program for decades. But 
this Federally-mandated managed program is not

[[Page 15037]]

the only source of wasteful spending in waste, fraud and abuse. 
Frankly, the entire government endures this rampant problem also.
  In March of this year, GAO submitted its report on the United States 
government's consolidated financial statement for fiscal year 2001 and 
2002. Not surprisingly, GAO could not express its opinion on these 
statements due to ``material weaknesses in internal control and in 
accounting and reporting.''
  It is the accounting and reporting that particularly appalls me. In 
the past 2 years, we have seen what happens with poor accounting and 
reporting in the corporate world, but it appears that the accounting 
irregularities continue to run rampant in the Federal Government as 
well. These irregularities and lack of internal controls result in 
``hampering the Federal Government's ability to accurately report 
assets, liabilities and costs.''
  In addition, such problems prevent accurate reporting of the cost and 
performance of certain Federal programs. That is, we cannot even 
determine what our government owns, what it accurately spends each 
year. GAO goes so far as to state that as a result of these material 
deficiencies, that the amounts reported in the consolidate financial 
statements ``may not be reliable.''
  So if a person wanted to see what the consolidated financial 
statements of a particular agency that reported, they might as well 
take a scientific wild guess, because the agency charged with examining 
the accounting statements of the Federal Government cannot even express 
an opinion because recordkeeping and controls are so shoddy. Yet, we 
ask the private sector to keep accurate records, and if they do not, 
they are held accountable.
  Mr. Speaker, we cannot even accurately state how much waste, fraud 
and abuse occurs in this Federal Government. Conservative estimates 
range at 20 billion plus. The government penalizes private companies 
for poor accounting, but when a Federal agency cannot account for 
billions that it has spent, what do we do? We give them an increased 
appropriations for the following year. We should not do this without 
strict accounting of these Federal agencies.
  The President issued his Management Agenda designed to emphasize that 
clean financial records are key to a ``well managed organization.'' I 
applaud the President's efforts in this area as it is a daunting task 
to reform such a bureaucratic beast. The government requires its 
citizens every year to pay an ever-increasing burden in Federal taxes 
and users fees for expanding Federal programs. The least we could do is 
to accurately report how the money is spent.
  We must do this in Congress, put in place accounting procedures so we 
can determine what the government owns, what it spends; and then and 
only then can we determine where the waste, fraud and abuse is and 
save, ultimately, the hard-earned money of the taxpayers.

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