MORE OF THAT 'RUNNING GOVERNMENT LIKE A BUSINESS'

Reported in Drudge (no link):

More than $3 billion in Secret Service retirement benefits could not be adequately accounted for during a recent independent audit of the Homeland Security Department's books, Congressional Quarterly reports on Thursday.

The audit also showed the Coast Guard could not account for $497 million in "operating materials and supplies," according to a Feb. 13 memo from DHS Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin to Secretary Tom Ridge.

CQ's Justin Rood: "The memo is a summary of a report prepared by independent auditor KPMG on an audit of the agency's financial operations for the final seven months of fiscal 2003."

Coast Guard financial statements, the memo noted, "had never been audited on a stand-alone basis." It said the Secret Service "has already started corrective actions related to its retirement benefits."

The inspector general's office declined to comment on the memo.

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