FBI: Dead Heads and Dead Lines

The FBI has done it again.
This time, a Justice Department audit reports that phone companies have cut off hundreds of FBI wiretaps because — the FBI didn’t pay its phone bills.
You couldn’t make this up.
The investigation looked at five FBI field offices, which it declined to identify, of course,
More than half of 990 bills to pay for surveillance of suspected criminals, including suspected terrorists and spies, were not paid on time.
The Associated Press story said in one office alone the unpaid bill ran $66,000.
I’ve watched enough “Law and Order” shows lately to qualify for a diploma from the county’s Public Safety Training Center.
In most of those TV programs, if the FBI shows up, the local police take their case notes and go the other way. Now I better understand that and the many plot lines where undercover money went astray or all the witness protection participants seemed to vanish.
Do I want the FBI to come if my bank is robbed or a loved one is kidnapped? Of course I do. But that doesn’t change the facts of this mess.
Inspector General Glenn A. Fine released an 87-page audit last week, but most of it was edited out as “too sensitive.” Naturally.
Incidentally, the same audit found one FBI employee stole $25,000 from the agency.
Assistant FBI Director John Miller said they’re working on solving the problem and will not tolerate “financial mismanagement or worse...”
Maybe the agency should offer a course in common sense business practices, to be taken right after qualifying on the firing range. What do you think?