Posted: Wed, Apr 7, 2004, 9:24 PM ET (0124 GMT)
A report issued Tuesday by the General Accounting Office concluded that NASA has failed to properly account for money spent on the shuttle and International Space Station programs. The report, sent to the leadership of House and Senate committees that oversee NASA, noted that NASA was not complying with a 2000 law that set caps on the amount of money NASA can spend on the ISS and shuttle flights to it. The GAO is required to audit the figures NASA reports, but since fiscal year 2002 the GAO said it has not obtained sufficient information to complete those audits. Moreover, in NASA's 2005 budget request the agency provided no figures at all. NASA claims that much of the problem is linked to a dispute between the two agencies regarding what data should be used for the audits. NASA plans to send an updated budget report to Congress next month.
