The Government Accountability Office said in a new report that the Treasury Department had made progress in overseeing the bailout program, but that it has not done enough to monitor conflicts of interest.
The GAO said that, while Treasury's Office of Financial Stability had a "range of formal and informal processes in place" to manage conflicts of interest with the law and accounting firms it hired to advise on the bailout, there is no process in place to document the decisions made and the actions taken.
"In the absence of documentation, there is no record of how issues were addressed and resolved, should the need to revisit those issues arise in the future," the GAO said.
According to the report, OFS said it is developing procedures to address the documentation problem.
In addition, the GAO noted that OFS had reviewed the conflicts mitigation plans submitted by six contractors working on the TARP program. Two of them, GAO said, had to be renegotiated as a result.
The GAO's report also singled out Treasury's ongoing hiring problems for criticism. While it applauded efforts to hire asset managers to oversee the Treasury's portfolio of bank securities, it said that no one has yet been hired to fill those jobs.
According to the GAO, as of March 20, OFS had 113 full-time employees. It expects to need 196 to operate at full capacity. That represents an increase of 65 full-time employees from its January estimate of 131.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has been criticized in recent months for failing to assemble a large enough staff to deal with the Troubled Asset Relief Program and other initiatives related to the economic crisis.
Recent media reports have said that the Obama administration's strict vetting of tax compliance and conflicts of interest have made it hard to hire qualified employees.
The GAO also pointed to Treasury's communication strategy as another area that needs improvement.
Despite public and congressional uncertainty about the banking bailout, "Treasury has yet to develop a communication strategy for regularly and routinely communicating its activities to relevant congressional committees, members, the public, and other critical stakeholders," the GAO said.
The failure to improve public communication, the GAO noted, could make it more difficult for Treasury to ask for additional bailout money in the future.
The GAO said that, while Treasury's Office of Financial Stability had a "range of formal and informal processes in place" to manage conflicts of interest with the law and accounting firms it hired to advise on the bailout, there is no process in place to document the decisions made and the actions taken.
"In the absence of documentation, there is no record of how issues were addressed and resolved, should the need to revisit those issues arise in the future," the GAO said.
According to the report, OFS said it is developing procedures to address the documentation problem.
In addition, the GAO noted that OFS had reviewed the conflicts mitigation plans submitted by six contractors working on the TARP program. Two of them, GAO said, had to be renegotiated as a result.
The GAO's report also singled out Treasury's ongoing hiring problems for criticism. While it applauded efforts to hire asset managers to oversee the Treasury's portfolio of bank securities, it said that no one has yet been hired to fill those jobs.
According to the GAO, as of March 20, OFS had 113 full-time employees. It expects to need 196 to operate at full capacity. That represents an increase of 65 full-time employees from its January estimate of 131.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has been criticized in recent months for failing to assemble a large enough staff to deal with the Troubled Asset Relief Program and other initiatives related to the economic crisis.
Recent media reports have said that the Obama administration's strict vetting of tax compliance and conflicts of interest have made it hard to hire qualified employees.
The GAO also pointed to Treasury's communication strategy as another area that needs improvement.
Despite public and congressional uncertainty about the banking bailout, "Treasury has yet to develop a communication strategy for regularly and routinely communicating its activities to relevant congressional committees, members, the public, and other critical stakeholders," the GAO said.
The failure to improve public communication, the GAO noted, could make it more difficult for Treasury to ask for additional bailout money in the future.
published April 3, 2009, 0 Comments
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