The Congressional oversight panel assigned to keep tabs on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program issued a new report Friday that raised more hard questions about how the Treasury Department is dispensing and tracking the money.
"The American people have a right to know how their taxpayer dollars are being used, and so far, they have not gotten the transparency and accountability they deserve," said Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who heads the five-member panel.
In its 65-page report, the panel said it could not determine what
The panel said confidence in the financial markets can be restored only when information is transparent and reliable. It added that no clear mechanism exists to value certian TARP assets or to ensure that the dangers posed by toxic assets have been addressed.
The panel noted that although the Treasury Department has been steering the taxpayer investments to what it describes as "healthy'' banks, that label depends heavily on the accurate valuation of each institution's assets.
"If the banks have not yet recognized losses associated with over-valued assets,
then their balance sheets - and Treasury's assessment of their health - may be suspect,'' the panel said in its report.
The panel complained that the Treasury Department has not yet taken any steps to use TARP funds to address foreclosure issues or develop plans to "maximize assistance to homeowners'' -- one of the mandates of the TARP legislation.
Finally, the panel said its concern is mounting that the department does not have a coherent strategy or set of goals for the use of the TARP funds. To read the full report, on on this link: http://cop.senate.gov/documents/cop-010909-report.pdf
BailoutSleuth welcomes your comments or observations on the panel's findings.
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