NASA Overruns: Are Funds Being Diverted?

“NASA Awards Bonuses Despite Cost Overruns” (Oct. 7) revealed that NASA posted a bonus check to TRW for $5 million--inscrutable! We are a debtor nation; our secretary of Treasury (Mr. Bentsen) should order a stop payment, with instructions to rewrite the check to the U.S. government for the specific purpose of reducing our deficit. . . .

Unless our present Administration drastically reduces the military, NASA, CIA, FBI and other unruly dollar appetites, our abyss will deepen. No sage or genius am I, but as U.S. Navy retired, I am an atom of the problem.

ROBERT L. NEVINS

Fullerton

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I was astounded to learn that NASA could not account for 37% of its assets ($12 billion), or 32% of its annual spending ($4.5 billion per year). This is absurd.

Government procurement and payment procedures simply do not allow for astronomical discrepancies like this to occur. And to suggest that this could simply be weakness in NASA’s accounting system is naive.

In my opinion, these funds are being systematically diverted to the government’s famous “black” programs. Most of these we know nothing about and neither does a majority of our congressional lawmakers. Whoever is responsible for this misappropriation of funds must think we are awfully stupid or just don’t care.

It is important that we finally stand up and say, “This is our money.” No one has the right to divert public funds that have been lawfully appropriated by Congress for a particular purpose.

MARK McINTYRE

Los Angeles