Treasury Contracts Continued
Treasury is turning to two veteran auditors to help adminster the $700 billion buyout.
The contracts with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young are not giant, at least not initially. $191,469.27 and $492,006.95, respectively, according to the department's announcement.
But they're surely considered pretty darned important. One can only assume the auditors' performances are going to be closely scrutinized, given all the money that will be sloshing around. The contracts could last through 2011. No word yet on what the total cost could be.
"The firms will help the Department with accounting and internal controls services needed to administer the complex portfolio of troubled assets the Department will purchase, including whole loans and mortgage backed securities. PricewaterhouseCoopers will help the Department establish a sound internal control posture and Ernst & Young will provide general accounting support and expert accounting advice."
For you curious folks, the auditors will be paid through blanket purchase agreements at the GSA. Here is the contract for PricewaterhouseCoopers
Here's the contract for Ernst & Young.
By the way, isn't PricewaterhouseCoopers the auditor for AIG?
By Robert O'Harrow |
October 21, 2008; 3:25 PM ET
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Posted by: Michael Lent | October 22, 2008 11:09 AM
I agree with the prior commenter. Are you being paid to investigate and report and add interest and value to stories you have written or simply, point us "dear readers" to the often interesting and probing stories that others write ( in case you missed it and it seems you did see Eric Lipton't detailed story on the FRONT PAGE of Sunday NYT.It seems you are more interested in your attempts at cute word games and awardin cookies than you are in digging into stories and serving up some substantive reporting. I give up.
Posted by: Outem305 | October 22, 2008 3:18 PM
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These two firms are only participating for the prestige. No matter how big the program, they will be drained of budget in attempting pluperfect quality control--which is not the reputation they universally enjoy from their commercial clients (see settlements, convictions, professional disciplinary actions). Treasury has been deadly serious about conflicts of interest, and presumably is satisfied with whatever has been disclosed and planned for mitigation. Note, the big contracts for the asset managers/traders are yet to be awarded. Sources indicate that Goldman Sachs proposed doing the work pro bono. That's the least the firm could do. For the asset managers/traders, the COIs will be potentially enormous. It will be interesting to see what is done to control them. Note that the initial intent to spend the bailout funding mainly on buying up toxic assets has been overtaken in favor of spending it on capital infusions. Expect the total bailout price tag to zoom up, in steps, probably the next one post-election. Also note that the usual government contractors can still expect to get scant revenue from the bailout; it is not what they do, no matter what one of the trade mags said earlier this week.
Michael Lent, editor
Government Services Insider