$300 Billion Lost in Waste, Fraud, U.S. Report Claims

In a report scheduled for release today, the Democratic staff of the House Government Operations Committee has calculated that the federal government lost more than $300 billion because of waste, fraud and mismanagement in recent years, with most of the losses occurring since 1988.

“Government waste has not only bilked the taxpayer of hundreds of billions of dollars, but it has created a public cynicism about government,” the report said.

While the report may be read as partisan in nature--former President George Bush is accused of “fed bashing,” for example--its listing of troubled programs and agencies points up the responsibility that the Clinton Administration and congressional Democrats have assumed as they attempt to “reinvent government” after 12 years of divided rule in Washington.

Congress “deserves some blame,” the report acknowledged. “Congress has been a partner to budget cuts to agency programs that have resulted in less audit coverage and evaluation of those very programs, as well as to cuts that have hollowed out the ability of agencies to carry out their missions.”

Among the examples of waste cited in the report:

-- The Interior Department spent $66 million subsidizing the cost of irrigating farmlands to produce corn, barley, rice and cotton. The Agriculture Department, meanwhile, paid the same farmers $379 million to limit surplus crop production.

-- The Education Department OKs $800,000 daily in student loans to ineligible recipients because of faulty computer systems.