Defense officials say the Pentagon's inspector general will investigate allegations of waste and misuse taxpayer funds by a military-led unit that's responsible for accounting for POWs and MIAs.
The investigation comes in response to an internal Pentagon report that said the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command's search for remains on old battlefields is so inept, mismanaged and wasteful that it risks descending from dysfunction to total failure.
At a congressional hearing on the issue Thursday, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri expressed frustration with officials who have been slow to enact reforms.
“I just want you to hear my voice ringing in your head, get it frickin’ done," McCaskill said. "We are not going to be patient about this. This has been a problem for 20 years. We want the plan, we want the reorganization of this effort so there’s not so many cooks in the kitchen who’s in charge but there’s on chef that we can blame if the numbers aren’t there.”
W. Montague Winfield, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW-MIA policy, told McCaskill that the Pentagon's watchdog has been directed to investigate what he called allegations of "waste, fraud and abuse."
