The Government Accounting Office, which is (supposedly) non-partisan and may or may not have a stalwart track record in accurate accounting,* has released some information that is a little less than reassuring to those banking on the auto industry’s bailout billions being recouped.

The GAO interviewed a bunch of experts in the financial and auto industries and found that not only does the Department of the Treasury (the overseers of the bailout stock purchases) probably not have the expertise to actually make this “investment” pay off, but they likely have conflicts of interest in doing so.

According to the GAO’s report:

Because of the particular needs of the auto companies and the unprecedented nature of providing such assistance, Treasury hired or contracted with a number of individuals with expertise in the auto industry, equity investment, and relevant areas of law… Since those agreements have been finalized and the workload has declined, two-thirds of the original professional staff has left… given the wind-down of the auto team—and the associated loss of dedicated staff with industry- and company-specific knowledge and expertise—we are concerned that Treasury may not have sufficient expertise to actively oversee and protect the government’s ownership interests, including determining when and how to divest these interests.

Note the apparent call for the re-hiring of experts written between the lines there.  These people would, eventually, becoming permanent employees since government is really only good at one thing: getting bigger.  But I digress.

Last year, in an unusually candid report, the Congressional Oversight Panel projected that taxpayers will lose billions on the auto industry bailout programs.  News flash: we lost billions when they gave the bailouts!  “Going to” is a misnomer.

Back to the GAO report: the Treasury has several options for getting out of the auto business – none of them good.  They could wait decades on the hopes that Chrysler and General Motors can recover their businesses and become viable enough that the government-owned stock shares become worth the $80-some billion invested.  (To be brutal… this isn’t likely.)  They could sell off their shares at current market values and get little to nothing for them.  Or they could forget it and write off their shares as worthless paper and move on.

Whatever they do, they’ll have to explain it to the Congress and (maybe) to the American people.  The Department of the Treasury doesn’t exactly have a strong track record in this regard either.  They still haven’t explained the Bankster bailouts, so I wouldn’t hold my breath over them explaining these bailouts either.

Oh well.  What’s $80 or so billion anyway?  F it.

*I’m sure that, whatever their track record really is, it’s probably good enough for government work regardless..

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