It appears that the GAO (Government Accounting Office) is finally getting some funds to do  job, according to this story this morning in USA Today:

The stimulus bill contains $330.5 million for oversight; $25 million for the Government Accountability Office, the non-partisan congressional agency, $84 million to create an accountability board within the White House and $221.5 million to the inspectors general who serve as department watchdogs.

USA Today asked if all of this prevent misuse of the money.

“While I’m sure that everybody will do their best, there’s no question there will be waste,” said David Walker, a former head of the GAO who is president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a non-partisan group that promotes federal fiscal responsibility. “The only question is, how much waste will there be?”

Walker said he’s encouraged by the focus on oversight but concerned that there may not be clear goals for what the spending is supposed to produce or guidelines for how the money is to be distributed and spent. “If you don’t have those rules in place, by merely having more people look at what’s happened after the fact, all you’re going to do is identify problems too late,” Walker said.

Walker is right. Washington usually discovers the problem after the money has been spent, and in some cases wasted. Just look at how Bernie Madoff duped the Securities and Exchange Commission.