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By Tom Abate
San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
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The Department of Defense, already infamous for spending $640 for a toilet seat, once again finds itself under intense
scrutiny, only this time because it couldn't account for more than a trillion dollars in financial transactions, not to
mention dozens of tanks, missiles and planes.
The Pentagon's unenviable reputation for waste will top the congressional agenda this week, when the House and Senate
are expected to begin floor debate on a Bush administration proposal to make sweeping changes in how the Pentagon spends
money, manages contracts and treats civilian employees.
The Bush proposal, called the Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act, arrives at a time when the nonpartisan
General Accounting Office has raised the volume of its perennial complaints about the financial woes at Defense, which
recently failed its seventh audit in as many years.
"Overhauling DOD's financial management operations represent a challenge that goes far beyond financial accounting to
the very fiber of (its) . . . business operations and culture," GAO chief David Walker told lawmakers in March.
WHAT HAPPENED TO $1 TRILLION?
Though Defense has long been notorious for waste, recent government reports suggest the Pentagon's money management woes
have reached astronomical proportions. A study by the Defense Department's inspector general found that the Pentagon
couldn't properly account for more than a trillion dollars in monies spent. A GAO report found Defense inventory systems
so lax that the U.S. Army lost track of 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units.
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