Baucus Comments on Special IG for Tarp Quarterly Report

Finance Chairman commends strong oversight, urges careful accounting of taxpayer dollars

Washington, DC – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today welcomed the first Quarterly Report to Congress from the office of Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The findings of the report were largely shared in a Finance Committee hearing on March 31 featuring the TARP Special IG Neil Barofsky, the Acting Comptroller General for the General Accountability Office (GAO) Gene Dodaro, and Elizabeth Warren of the Congressional Oversight Board.
The TARP was created as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) to help steady the U.S. financial sector and unlock credit markets.

Today’s Quarterly Report from the Special IG provides an update on expenditures under the TARP program, lists the six audits initiated, and outlines recommendations for Treasury as the Department begins to manage the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) and Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP).

“I will raise with Treasury Department leadership the recommendations of the Special IG on the TALF and PPIP programs. These are both trillion dollar programs, and we need to proceed as carefully as possible to protect taxpayer dollars,” Baucus said. “This is one of the greatest oversight challenges in American history. The TARP program is now estimated to be nearly $3 trillion when funds from the Federal Reserve are added – that’s about the of last year’s entire Federal budget. This report demonstrates that the Special Inspector General is doing an excellent job of making sure taxpayer funds are used wisely.”

At the March 31 hearing Baucus inquired whether guidelines were given to TARP participants regarding their use of Federal dollars. Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General of the TARP, indicated that no guidelines had been provided by Treasury beyond certain restrictions on executive compensation paid by participating firms, a limitation that Baucus championed as part of EESA. Barofsky said some firms had used the money to increase lending as intended by the program, while others used funds to pay debts to other banks.

Baucus was responsible for creating the independent office of TARP Special Inspector General to protect against waste, fraud, and abuse in the Treasury’s program.

The full Quarterly Report may be viewed here:

http://sigtarp.gov/reports/congress/2009/April2009_Quarterly_Report_to_Congress.pdf

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