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In following the contracts related to reconstruction and military actions in Iraq, bpost has come across a variety of stories from a variety of sources. One such story was reported in the St. Petersburg Times and posted here at bpost on June 28 with a short follow up from the St. Petersburg Times on the 29th.

As the United States geared up for war in Iraq, MacDill Air Force Base scrambled to provide temporary offices for foreign military officers streaming in from around the world.

Money was no object.

Qucik recap: MacDill contracted out for a quick expansion of its facilities. The bill is in and it was $467,000 dollars over the original budget of $110,000 dollars. It's not just that the overage was a problem, MacDill may also have violated federal law.

Three months later, and The St. Petersburg Times places MacDill once again in the limelight.

Sen. Bill Nelson has requested two investigations into how the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base inflated budget numbers at the Pentagon's request to hide $20 million from Congress.

[…]

The Pentagon investigation centers on an agreement between the Pentagon comptroller's office in Washington and the Special Operations Command comptroller at MacDill.

The plan, according to defense officials and base documents, called for Special Operations to pad its proposed budget by $20-million so the money could be used later by the Pentagon for some other purpose.

Keeping in mind MacDill is only one base, how much bigger is this story going to get? What will be the final total on this?

When will our legislators in Washington begin taking accountability seriously?