Report: Problems With America Supports You

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Report: Problems With America Supports You

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 12, 2008 17:39:04 EST

About $9.2 million in appropriated funds were inappropriately funneled to the independent newspaper Stars and Stripes to finance a Pentagon program aimed at telling troops how well they are supported by the general public, the Defense Department Inspector General has concluded.

And a senior Pentagon official conducted that program, America Supports You, in a “questionable and unregulated manner,” producing “results that were not consistent with the program’s objective,” the IG report said, adding that the official had “too much authority and control over the ASY program.”

Stars and Stripes officials also “lost visibility” of $4.1 million in appropriated funds — those authorized by Congress for specific programs. The IG’s Dec. 12 report also concluded that about $1.9 million from Stars and Stripes’ nonappropriated fund account was spent to subsidize expenses of the ASY program.

Stars and Stripes, which falls under Pentagon public affairs management but is editorially independent, is supported primarily with nonappropriated funds. Pentagon policy bans the use of nonappropriated funds, raised through the on-base sale of goods and services, from being used for or to support public affairs activities.

The audit also found that the Pentagon public affairs directorate provided “inadequate oversight” for an $8.8 million contract with an outside public relations firm. The audit questions the “nature of work, cost and competitive process” of the contract, said Bob Hastings, assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

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