Phone company cuts off FBI wiretap for unpaid bill

FBI building in Washington

    A telephone company cut off an FBI international wiretap after the agency failed to pay its bill on time, according to a US government audit released on Thursday.

    The Justice Department's inspector general faulted the FBI for poor handling of money used in undercover investigations, which it said made the agency vulnerable to theft and mishandled invoices.

    It cited the case in which a wiretap under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs electronic spying in terrorism and intelligence cases, was disrupted due to an overdue bill.

    "Late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence," the audit said.

    FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said "no investigations were adversely affected."

    The audit cited a 2006 case in which an FBI employee pleaded guilty to stealing more than $25,000 in confidential case funds intended for undercover telecoms services.

    In response, the FBI's Assistant Director John Miller said that the bureau is working to fix the problems.

    "While there is widespread agreement in the agency that the current financial management system, first introduced in the 1980s is inadequate, the FBI will not tolerate financial mismanagement, or worse, and is addressing the issues identified in the audit," John Miller said.

    The FBI has agreed to accept 11 of the 16 recommendations to improve the agency's tracking and management of the funding system to prevent such failure in phone bill payment.(Agencies)

FBI拖欠电话费 窃听电路被切

    据上周四公布的一份美国政府审计报告，美国联邦调查局由于未及时缴纳电话费，其国际窃听线路被电信公司切断。

    美国司法部监察长谴责FBI对秘密调查经费管理不善，从而导致该机构经常发生盗用公款和乱开发票的事件。

    该报告称，美国联邦调查局曾在《外国情报监听法》框架下实施的一项监听活动曾因拖欠电话费而被切断线路。《外国情报监听法》是一项有关在反恐和窃取外国情报过程中实施电子监听的法案。

    该审计报告称，“由于拖欠电话费，电信运营公司切断了用于向FBI传输监听结果的电话线路，从而导致证据丢失。”

    美国联邦调查局发言人理查德?科尔克称，“本次拖欠话费未对秘密调查活动造成不利影响”。

    该报告还提到2006年的一起FBI工作人员盗用公款案，这名工作人员承认自己盗用了2.5万多美元的秘密通讯服务费。

    FBI副局长约翰?米勒说，目前联邦调查局正在着手解决这些资金管理不善的问题。

    他说：“联邦调查局内部普遍认为，于上世纪80年代引进的财务管理系统现已过时。联邦调查局不会任由财务管理的混乱状况继续发展下去，而且目前机构内部也正在着手解决审计报告中提到的一系列问题。”

    为了改善FBI资金系统的监管工作，防止拖欠电话费事件的再度发生，审计报告中还提出了16条整改建议，FBI已同意采纳其中的11条。