apparently the fbi is too busy chasing down terrorists and other persons of interest to pay attention to its phone bills. a couple of telecommunications carriers (telcos) have disconnected covert surveillance lines used by the fbi's field offices due to late or non payment. the united states justice department released a super edited version of the audit report that concludes:
FBI's FMS lacks the controls necessary to prevent theft and, as such, is not an effective financial system for FBI employees to use to account for and approve confidential case funds. In addition, the audit found that the FBI has not established sufficient guidance and consistent procedures necessary to track and pay telecommunication surveillance bills accurately and timely. The audit also identified areas where field division oversight should be improved to further mitigate the risk of improper use of confidential case funds.
if the fbi is so inefficient at managing its internal [financial] affairs, how effective are they at other more important operations like say... the much touted war on terror? their bookkeeping is so bad that in june 2006, one of their employees pleaded guilty to stealing $25,000. sigh.
i'm curious as to why the telcos disconnected the lines. was it a public relations stunt or are relationships souring? was it a pr move to counter the public outcry over the telco's participation in the united states national security agency's (nsa) warrantless electronic surveillance program?
since 2006, some of these telcos have enjoyed lucrative deals brokered by neocons in the current bush administration. what's a few thousand dollars in unpaid fbi bills yet the same intelligence community (doing business as the nsa) is paying an undisclosed amount of tax payer money for a peak at at&t's backbone data? are relationships between telcos and the united states intelligence community souring or are telcos preparing for a possible democratic white house come 2009?
maybe there is nothing to it, the telco billing systems just worked as they should: no payment, no service, no exceptions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I haven’t read all the background on this story, but just as you point out, it begs the question – if they can’t get their butts in gear to establish a secure system for accounting (administrative or project/case fund management), why would anyone think that they are capable to manage their equipment, information from surveillance, or confidential data any more securely (or wisely, I might add)??
This is nothing new. Remember a few years ago when FBI did an inventory audit and found that hundred of laptops, and weapons had gone missing or unaccounted for; and FBI guessed that the missing laptops probably contained confidential info. Following that embarrassing report, Congress was supposed to establish a plan for oversight of FBI information systems, among other aspects of Bureau activities.
So what gives? Is Congressional oversight totally lame at actually addressing these problems of inefficiency, poor record keeping and accounting? Non-payment could be another illustration of FBI’s incompetent information systems. Or maybe, like you suggest, they are too busy chasing bad guys to actually pay the bills (or too busy checking if the microwave is free for their lean cuisine lunch). But maybe they simply didn’t have the money. This could be yet another example of Bushies coming up with a grand scheme that they have no intention of funding, or thinking through, or vetting against the Bill of Rights…
Keep us posted, Wocha. There’s undoubtedly something else going on there.
Post a Comment