One thing that struck me about the economic stimulus bill that was signed into law Tuesday by President Obama was the amount of money being spent to prevent waste, fraud and abuse.
A review I did found that it totals out to over 300 million dollars.
On the front line of that spending are the Inspectors General, the internal watchdogs of each federal agency. They investigate reports of waste, fraud and abuse and check on the claims of whistleblowers.
So, along with the $84 million being used to set up a new "Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board," the IG's are getting a lot more budget authority as well.
For example, the IG at the Department of Agriculture got $22.5 million in the stimulus for "oversight and audit of programs, grants, and activities" funded by the stimulus bill.
$22.5 million to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse, eh? Not bad for an office that right now has a yearly budget of $86 million.
In other words, their budget just went up by 25%.
Also getting a lot more money was the IG at the Department of Health and Human Services, which receives $17 million in the stimulus bill.
The yearly budget there in 2009 - $46 million, almost a 40% bump.
Other big winners in terms of extra budget money included the Inspectors General at the EPA and Department of Transportation, which will both get $20 million more for their budgets.
The Pentagon IG gets an extra $15 million, as does the IG at the Department of Energy.
I counted up $211 million for twenty three different Inspectors General offices, ranging from Amtrak to Social Security to NASA and the Labor Department.
Add to that the $84 million to fund the brand new Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board, and $25 million for the General Accountability Office for their work to watch the stimulus.
That means - by my totals - the Congress and the President have approved $320 million to watch for waste, fraud and abuse in this $787 billion stimulus measure.
Is that needed? Is it overkill? Is it wasted stimulus? That's your call.
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