GAO: NASA Doing Lousy Job of Finding Out How Lousy of a Job It is Doing

Report: NASA not doing enough to save taxpayer dollars
Associated Press

Congressional auditors say that NASA’s in-house financial watchdog is doing little to unearth waste and abuse at the space agency.

The Government Accountability Office compared NASA’s inspector general to 27 other federal agencies and found it next to last, according to a report obtained by The Associated Press. NASA’s financial watchdog saved taxpayers only 36 cents for every dollar their department spent, the new report says. The average for federal inspectors general was $9.49.

The GAO determined that NASA’s inspector general didn’t plan enough financial audits and didn’t seem independent enough from the space agency. In a written response to the report, the NASA inspector general said the GAO misrepresented the NASA audits and called the report flawed.