NASA Budget: It Ain't Rocket Science
But it apparently is baffling enough to make even the superbeancounters at the General Accounting Office throw up their hands. A new GAO report says
the space agency's accounting systems are so convoluted they could not figure out what amount of federal funding was applied to the International Space Station program and what amount went to the grounded shuttle fleet.
"We have no basis for verifying NASA's charges against the limits," wrote Gregory Kutz, the GAO's director of financial management and assurance.
The finding comes as no surprise. The GAO has issued similar reports every year since the 2000 law was passed in an attempt to hold NASA accountable for repeated cost overruns on the International Space Station program.
What makes the report unusual is that it reveals NASA has made little accounting progress under Administrator Sean O'Keefe, a budget specialist who was assigned to the agency to fix its chronic management and financial weaknesses.
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The problem is that the GOA does it’s accounting in metric, while NASA is still using the olde English financial system:
farthing = 1/4 old penny
thrupenny bit = 3 old pence
shilling = 12 old pence
florin = 2 shillings
pound (note) = 20 shillings
1/2 crown = 2 shillings and 6 old pence
guinea = 1 pound and 1 shilling
Maybe they’re using quantam accounting.
No, I can’t possibly explain it.
Did NASA ever put up that satellite that was going to be show Al Gore’s entire head on the internet?
The obvious question is: is there any gov’t agency with decent books?
$380 million per launch to find out if Jello wiggles in zero gravity,or does a frog`s fart dissipate in the stratosphere? These are tough questions that don`t need GAO`s financial harassment.