In addition to the “At What Cost?” report by the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), the State Department has a new audit to digest.  This latest audit shows Blackwater Worldwide should not have been paid at least $55 million, because they “didn’t employ enough guards, medics, marksmen and dog handlers to fully man the teams, which were responsible for protecting the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and other high-level officials,” according to WSJ.com.

Question number one is why is this accounting error just now being discovered years later?  Why were checks being mailed out for millions of dollars of work never done or improperly executed?  These are the same scary scenarios taxpayers need to fear with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).  Without continuous controls monitoring (CCM) software, the government is not monitoring processes and keeping tabs on where the money is being spent.  This Blackwater case is a prime example — to the tune of $55 million — which falls in line with the recent improper payment testimony of President Obama’s Chief Technology Officer Aneesh P. Chopra.

Chopra testified, “According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a significant portion of the $72 billion in improper payments can be attributed to two key problem areas:  (i) inability of the Federal agency and recipients to produce supporting documentation to validate a payment when it is audited for accuracy; and (ii) inability of Federal agency to verify or authenticate the eligibility of a recipient.”  That $72 billion was in 2008 alone.

Chopra has also testified to knowing the Defense Finance and Accounting Service’s (DFAS) monitoring program has already prevented over 2,000 improper payments totaling more than $220 million.  Knowing this, why wouldn’t it be implemented immediately for ARRA, TARP and contractors like Blackwater?  All government spending?  Americans are entitled to know the dirty details of spent money and if ledgers are legit. The devil lurks in these details.

Accounting aside, Blackwater, now under the new name of Xe, is even being considered for new government contracts.  Why would the U.S. contract them again knowing their poor track record in addition to their civil and criminal scrutiny for shooting, killings and more?

History is repeating itself with millions, sometimes billions, going erroneously out the door at many government agencies.  It is critical to get detailed non-stop monitoring as close to real-time as possible providing the greatest opportunity to nip a problem in the bud.  It costs a lot more to correct a problem later.