The article feeds the larger story of the failure of the Republican philosophy that regulatory oversight of business is not necessary. The story suggests that corruption of the function of the regulatory body comes from the top echelons. The story does not delve into black projects and special access projects where access is much more difficult than for ordinary DOD projects. Even if the dollars are audited, the work is so classified that no outsider could gain access to evaluate the quality of any work alleged to have been performed.

this is a good beginning of a story which needs more depth to provide more context on the pentagon's relationship with bechtel and on so many stories on the pentagon's spending practices during the war in iraq. there's one mention of a congressional hearing and no reports on what happened since. what's described here sounds similar to the recent airlines/faa practices

From the standpoint of telling the story accurately, I believe it is good journalism. I worked for DCAA for 20 years (1978-1998) and have experienced record delays similar to those in this report. I also think it is important for this issue to be publicized because money is being wasted in many ways when contractors are not cooperative.