Shocking Report Shows Feds Can't Keep Track of Your Tax Dollars - The Error Rates Are Staggering

WASHINGTON – How do federal agencies spend your hard-earned tax dollars? A new report shows many of them find it nearly impossible to get their numbers straight.

Under the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA), agencies are required by law to submit their spending records to USAspending.gov.

However, a review of just 25 of the 96 federal agencies shows more than half of the information submitted, 55 percent, was either incomplete, inaccurate or both.

That adds up to $240 billion of government spending unaccounted for. 

"It is troubling that most federal agencies failed to comply with this law, and more than half of all the spending data federal agencies submitted was inaccurate," says Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which conducted the investigation.

The error rates are staggering. 

For example, the Departments of Defense and Energy had 100 percent error rates, meaning the nearly $5 billion spent between the agencies in Quarter 2 of 2017 is completely unaccounted for in the public database.

And get this: The Treasury Department, which is responsible for ensuring all agencies submit accurate data to the website, didn't even enter its own spending correctly, racking up a 96 percent error rate.

Even the IRS, the agency responsible for collecting taxes, had a 97 percent error rate.

There are also problems with the USAspending.gov website. The report reveals users get different results depending on how they search for information.

"One of our most sacred responsibilities as elected officials is to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, which is exactly what the DATA Act sought to ensure," said Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), who is the ranking member on the subcommittee.

The report points out that in 1804, President Thomas Jefferson requested the Treasury Department combine its accounts into "one batch" or a "consolidated mass" after complaining the federal government's finances had become too complex for the public to understand.

Now, 214 years later, the task remains elusive.