"All that advice on how to save money? Lots of it goes down the drain, watchdogs tell Congress"
"Federal watchdogs told Senate lawmakers Thursday that thousands of their recommendations for eliminating millions of wasted dollars every year get swept under the rug and simply never implemented.
“While much progress has been made on many of our recommendations, other critical recommendations to improve efficiency and effectiveness across the federal government remain unimplemented,” Gene Dodaro, the U.S. comptroller general and chief of the Government Accountability Office told a Senate panel on regulatory affairs and federal management at a hearing on why agencies do not always listen to their watchdogs....
He testifies about what his auditors found, which come to about 1,800 areas for savings every year. Many suggestions, about 80 percent, are implemented. And others linger for years, he said, a whopping 4,800 of them still on the books as of last month.
Inspectors general, who play a similar role in uncovering waste, fraud and abuse that can often result in excess spending, have similar frustrations...."
For the full article see:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/12/11/all-that-advice-on-how-to-save-money-lots-of-it-goes-down-the-drain-watchdogs-tell-congress/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_politics
And here is another extensive report, with sources from the Congressional Research Service, Senate Library, Government Accountability Office, Offices of Inspector Generals, and staff of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affair, detailing specific projects and the spending or mis-spending involved, released by US Senator Jeff Flake. The presentation mode is particularly interesting:
http://www.flake.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/03714fa3-e01d-46a1-9c19-299533056741/wastebook---the-farce-awakens.pdf
