Thread: TX-Audit: TX Misspends Border Patrol Funds

Audit: TX Misspends Border Patrol Funds

Last Edited: Thursday, 19 Mar 2009, 10:04 PM CDT
Created On: Thursday, 19 Mar 2009, 7:44 PM CDT

ISIAH CAREY
HOUSTON - Some of the streets of Mexico are running red with blood and the body count is adding up.

The consulate general in Houston knows the image his country has...while no tourists have been harmed he says thousand of drug dealers and police have been killed in the drug war.

While this is a fight down south, Carlos Gonzalez says, "this is shared responsibility we are asking and I believe getting cooperation from the U.S. government at all levels."

But is the state of Texas doing as much as it can to secure our border.

Houston Councilman Mike Sullivan is says the state is wasting what we have. He's referring to this state report on border security funds.

Auditors say while the federal government pumped millions into Texas to secure our borders...some of the money could be wasting away.

Here's a breakdown: out $142 million dedicated to border security in 2005; $63 million sat in the bank unused until 2008. Money Texas could lose if not timely spent.

Also, there's hundreds of thousands of dollars in questioned spending.

So what is Texas doing about that violence? According to auditors, the state purchased a $7 million helicopter and placed it in Austin.

Five officers hired for border security were placed in San Antonio and Houston.

The state spent $2 million on 105 new vehicles for border safety, none of which went to the border. The state used another $14,000 on aircraft repairs on planes that have yet to fly south.

Sullivan says the resources should go to the border before Houston gets the spillover.

"We need to have the tools the resources, the manpower and the firepower to protect our citizens," Sullivan says.

The governor's office responded to the audit saying they will make the necessary corrections and attempt to spend federal dollars in a timely fashion.


http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/po ... trol_audit

sheriff arvan west in hudspeth county could use some of that money to buy a new patrol car or two.

Same story, different budget. I really wish they would quit looting allocated funds in Austin.

Dixie

Crooks.... and Undocumented Immigrants....