The Nation - News from Oct. 28, 1988

Failure to monitor quarterly financial statements is resulting in the Defense Department overpaying contractors up to a billion dollars a year, an internal audit has found. To make matters worse, the shortcomings were clearly identified five years ago in an audit that elicited promises of improvement, said the report by the Defense Department inspector general’s office. Overpayments are usually recovered, but the government is losing interest payments on the money and placing an additional financial burden on itself through premature pay-outs, the report said.