CIA's "Huge" Raise in Budget for Terror

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Reuters Securities - April 17, 8:27 pm ET (via Yahoo)


CIA gets huge rise in anti-terrorism funds-senator

By Tabassum Zakaria 

WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - The CIA is receiving a `huge''
increase in anti-terrorism funds this year, Senate Intelligence
Committee Vice Chairman Richard Shelby said on Wednesday.

The CIA's budget is classified, but is estimated by intelligence
experts to be roughly $3 billion a year, which is about 10 percent of
the overall intelligence budget that also funds programs in the
Defense Department and other agencies.

President George W. Bush has requested $27 billion more this year in
a supplemental budget to fight terrorism that includes funding for
Pentagon, CIA and homeland security programs.

Congress was expected to consider that budget request over the next
few weeks. The United States launched a war on terrorism after the
Sept. 11 attacks.

`This year the agency is about to receive a huge new infusion of
funds to help fight the war on terrorism which we all support,''
Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said at a nomination hearing for CIA
inspector general.

Shelby pointedly made the statement to nominee John Helgerson while
reciting past criticism of the CIA's financial management.

Helgerson said if he were confirmed by the Senate as the spy agency's
third inspector general, one area he would focus on would be the
CIA's procurement and acquisition process for information technology
and information systems.

`This is an area that frankly in any government agency is ripe for
waste, fraud and abuse,'' he told the committee.

`I am mindful that CIA has received and will be receiving significant
additional funds,'' Helgerson said. `A great deal of these monies are
spent with overseas operations,'' and he would work to strengthen
field audits, he said.

Another area he would focus on was a multiyear program to produce
`truly auditable'' financial statements, he said.

`The challenge there is to hold the agency's feet to the fire, moving
toward the auditable financial statements, without getting ourselves
in an Enron/Andersen-like situation,'' Helgerson said, referring to
the energy firm that collapsed and its auditor charged with
destroying Enron-related documents.

Helgerson said the inspector general's office, which is a watchdog
and auditor of the spy agency's programs, should stick with auditing,
monitoring and follow-up, and stay away from actual program
implementation and management.

Helgerson's nomination was not considered controversial and approval
by the Senate Intelligence Committee was expected. His nomination
would then go before the full Senate for a vote.
 
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nytact-04.18.02-04:02:47-1739