Gee! You Think?

The TARP Program inspector general says that the program is ripe for potential fraud.

In a 250-page quarterly report to Congress, the rescue program's special inspector general concludes that a private-public partnership designed to rid financial institutions of their "toxic assets" is tilted in favor of private investors and creates "potential unfairness to the taxpayer."

The report, which examines the six-month old, $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, is scheduled for release Tuesday.

Using blunt language, Inspector General Neil Barofksy offers a series of recommendations to protect the public and takes the Treasury to task for not implementing previous advice. The report also commends Treasury and the Federal Reserve for creating some safeguards.

Any time that you have that much money flowing with very few restrictions or adequate oversight, you are almost guaranteed to get some fraud and abuse.

The worry of course is that this report may not actually spur any restrictions or input to manage the oversight a little better.