The Pentagon showed incredible contempt for Congress by trying to hide $20-million from legislative scrutiny. Such monetary shell-games might be routine at places with the morals of Enron, but they are forbidden by law in government for a reason. Public funds are supposed to be spent for the purpose they were appropriated, and Congress, where some powerful members rightly feel duped, should find out where the money went and who was involved in the deception. It should also explore whether the Defense Department stashes money secretly on a larger scale.
According to reports this week by the St. Petersburg Times' Paul de la Garza, the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa inflated its budget at the Pentagon's request to conceal $20-million from Congress. Records and interviews show that Special Operations officials divided the money among six projects so the funds would not attract public attention. Military aides were also instructed not to mention the funds during congressional briefings. Initially, the Pentagon wanted to hide $40-million, but the Special Operations Command refused. As the special operations comptroller wrote: "There was no way for us to park $40M."
The Pentagon's inspector general has opened an investigation, and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has asked for a similar probe by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The Senate Armed Services Committee also will review the case. "We've got to get to the bottom of it," Nelson said. His office said it received the names of people with knowledge of the "alleged slush fund" and would forward them to investigators. The House Appropriations chairman, C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, told defense officials at a hearing Tuesday that the propriety of what happened needs to be resolved. "It makes me a little suspicious," he said.
Lawmakers are right to be concerned about a move that Young said looked like "an obvious attempt to keep from Congress what was happening." The appropriations process, aside from producing a budget, is also the way Congress keeps a check on executive-branch initiatives. Balancing that constitutional power is undermined when agencies maneuver to "park" - as Special Operations described it - money behind the scenes. If this practice is routine, as the special operations' comptroller claims, then the amount of money involved in funny accounting at the Pentagon is far more than the $40-million initial "park" request in this case.
There is also the question of where the money went - not only the amount, but what the funds were used for. As Young made a point of noting Tuesday, Congress had given the Bush administration "considerable flexibility" in managing the war on terror. The lengths to which the military went to hide these funds raise questions not only about the Pentagon's honesty, but its investment in forces or equipment that may be unknown to our elected representatives. There must be a reason why Pentagon officials risked this backlash from Congress.
