How Did The Banks Used The TARP Funds? “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Today, the Committee On Oversight and Government Reform is holding a hearing titled: “Following the money: Report of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).”

Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General, will release his 3RD report to Congress and present his findings and audit report on how recipients have used TARP funds. So far, the Treasury has already committed $643 billion and spent $441 billion under the program.

Committee Chairman, Edolphus Town, writes in his statement:

“The findings of the Inspector General (IG), quite frankly, are astonishing. According to the IG, the TARP has become a program in which taxpayers are not being told what TARP recipients are doing with their money, have not been told what their investments are worth, and will not be told the full details of how their money is being invested. He found that even though Treasury receives monthly reports of the value of TARP investments, it will not make that information public. Incredibly, the Treasury Department has taken the position that it will not even ask TARP recipients what they are doing with the taxpayers money. In short, the taxpayers now have a $700 billion program that is being used under the philosophy of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.'”

In his report, the Inspector General  expresses concerns about the lack of transparency in the TARP program.He writes:

“Although Treasury has taken some steps toward improving transparency in TARP programs, it has repeatedly failed to adopt recommendations that SIGTARP believes are essential to providing basic transparency and fulfill Treasury’s stated commitment to implement TARP with ‘the highest degree of accountability and transparency possible’.”

One has to seriously wonder what happened to candidate Obama’s lofty promises in terms of providing an “historic level of accountability & transparency in government.”