European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 24, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 4 the stars and stripes saturday february 24, 1990 of Secretary fires Back at Gao report on costs Washington Force Secretary Donald Rice said in a letter released Friday that a congressional report contending his service grossly understated the costs or major weapons was a hypercritical and Quot the. Report of tors a narrow. Spa s View of the information needed for defense decision making that has limited relationship to the real problems of defense Rice said in an angry three Page letter to the head of the general accounting office. Charles Bowsher. For his part. Bowsher told a Senate committee Friday that the Force s accounting system failed to provide accurate Cost data for almost 80 percent of its weapons inventory and equipment. Quot we roughly estimate that equipment and missiles Are misstated by billions of dollars and aircraft and inventories arc misstated by tens of billions of he told the Senate governmental affairs committee. Bowsher testified As the Gao released its 109-Pagc audit of the Force s accounting and financial management system. News a cons thursday of the Gao s findings were based on a draft of the audit. Testifying at the hearing called after the draft became Public. Bowsher said the Force had resources totalling about $275 billion and received about $90 billion in annual appropriations. The Gao concluded that the Force understated the Cost of the by bomber by $7.1 billion the f-15 fighter by $6.8 billion and the f-16 fighter by $6.3 billion. In addition the Force made billions of dollars in Don Rice adjustments that could not be explained or supported by the service officials the Gao said. In one instance it said the Force tinkered with its accounts when the balance for the space systems div differed from other records by $2.4 billion making the change without determining Why the records did not agree. Sen. John Glenn a Ohio and chairman of the panel noted that the Gao chose to audit the Force because it was the Only armed service to develop financial statements that were in Accord with accounting practices elsewhere in the Federal government. Quot if the Force does indeed have the Best financial management system among the services then the audit results arc an indictment of the financial management systems of the whole department of defense a the army the Navy As Well As the Force Quot Glenn said. The Ohio Democrat also used the hearing to question Bowsher about Rice s previously feb. 15 letter to him. Although the defense department in its official response to the Gao report concurred wholly or in part with All 26 recommendations in the audit. Rice was highly critical of the report. The Force Secretary wrote that the serv ice volunteered to work with the Gao on the audit and Quot in return the Gao writes a hypercritical and inflammatory Quot i urge you to Send your team Back to the drawing Board with instructions to prepare a report that fairly evaluates the pros and cons of Gao s approach and which uses Force data Only As a test Case for a new approach Quot Rice said. Asked about Rice s standpoint Bowsher said the Gao audited the Force using a financial system for Federal agencies agreed upon in 1986 by himself former Treasury Secretary James Baker and former White House budget director James Miller. Rice also argued in his letter that even if the Type of financial information from Standard accounting systems were useful a Why do i need it at a Penny Wise level of accuracy that a spa would judge a Audita Lcy Quot Bowsher respond cd a we re not talking about Penny accuracy. We re talking about billions of dollars of errors Quot carried to safety Atlanta police officer . Wallace carries Stella Hammond to safety after a fire broke out in a senior citizens High Rise building on Friday. Although firefighters quickly put out the fire one Man was found dead in an apartment and a woman died when she leaped from the of Nicaragua election cite difficulties Washington Iasi a the White House was urged Friday to Quot go slow Quot on normalizing relations with Nicaragua after two prominent observers cited the possibility for fraud in sunday s election. Sen. Richard Lugar. A and. And Allen Weinstein president of the Independent monitoring organization the Center for democracy said Nicaragua is using a teletype system to transmit voting results. Which opens opportunities for the sandinista to engage in fraud. Weinstein also complained that the leftist sandinista government has blocked honduran and Costa rican delegations that were to join the Center s observation efforts at the election sunday. Moreover Weinstein said the government has barred observers from the Center from going in and out of precincts to watch the Vole count. They have also denied visas for additional staff members in the Center s Managua office and for two dozen . Democratic and Republican political leaders to join its monitoring operation. The Center has monitored elections in Panama and the Philippines and has been in Nicaragua since april at the invitation of both the sandinista government and the main political opposition group. Lugar was named by president Bush to head a bipartisan congressional team of election observers but the sandinista government denied them entry on the grounds that they represented a government that supports the opposition. A the presidents got to make some Tough decisions on what occurs Here a Lugar told reporters after he and Weinstein met with vice president Dan Quayle. A my advice would be to go slow in the process. We re going to have to sift out a Good bit of what . Officials have said that if Ortega won a free and fair election the Bush administration would consider normalizing relations with Managua As Long As other conditions arc fulfilled As Well. Those include cessation of exporting arms to leftist guerrillas in Al Salvador and honouring human rights. Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii told a congressional committee on thursday he would require a a sustained period of refraining from support for the salvadoran rebels and would impose stiff conditions before agreeing to normalized relations. As the world turned the Day just got longer Washington if it seems like some Days will never end it May not be your imagination. A government scientist confirms that the Day got longer recently. The Earth s rotation slowed slightly during a 10-Day period in january causing the length of a Day to increase by five ten thousandths of a second reports or. Dennis Mccarthy of the . Naval Observatory. The change occurred Starling Jan. 24 and has been associated with a series of Westerly bursts of wind blowing out of Asia across the Pacific Ocean Mccarthy said. Minute changes in the Earth s rotation Are most often associated with such weather he explained because the Force of the winds arts on the planet s surface. The last time the planet slowed significantly was during the 1982-83 Al Nino event when it decreased by two ten thousandths of a second. While climatologists report there Are signs of a new Al Nino developing in the Pacific Mccarthy said in a Telephone interview that it is too soon for that to affect the planet. Disaster areas declared in parts of soggy South by the associated press waterlogged portions of Georgia and Alabama were declared Federal disaster areas Friday and residents of Low lying sections in Mississippi stacked sandbags in preparation for More flooding this weekend. President Bush declared nine Northwestern Georgia counties to be eligible for disaster assistance in the Wake of last week s heavy Rains and tornadoes. Federal officials in Alabama added a dozen counties to the six that already had been declared disaster areas there. The declarations will make Federal Money available to people whose Homes or businesses were damaged in storms that have pounded the deep South since feb. 10. Another round of thunderstorms and tornadoes passed through the Region on thursday causing some serious damage in portions of Mississippi and Alabama and injuring at least 30 people. Tornadoes touched Down thursday along Mississippi s Gulf coast and in several places in Rural Alabama. Four people were seriously injured in Pike county Northwest of Opp ala., when a twister ripped apart three Mobile Homes
