The Pentagon lacks the resources to police all its resources, concludes the Pentagon’s inspector general. The Wall Street Journal’s Yochi J. Dreazen reports that defense spending has nearly doubled from 2000 to 2007—from about $300 billion to $600 billion. Yet the number of officers who oversee contracts rewarded by the Pentagon to private contractors hasn’t increased at all.

This means, in theory, that an individual auditor is responsible for about $2 billion. In reality, the Pentagon can’t keep track. Only half of the $316 billion spent on weapons in Iraq last year was sufficiently audited. Read Drezen here. MB

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