Ellis Wyatt said:
In case you missed it the other day, the Treasury paid everything they were told to. They rejected nothing, even if they knew it was in error or fraudulent.
So, yes. This is what happened.
I am not sure how much of a review & approval function the US Treasury takes. If they function like most corporations treasury depts, their role is managing the accounts, moving money around, estimating cash needs, providing for those, investing idle cash, etc.
The approval of expenses should follow a lengthy process within whichever department and funding mechanism the funding is going through.
Spending too much time at the Treasury other than for data accumulation and identifying potential fraudulent payment would be off the target.
At the end of the day, the US Treasury is not the string on the purse. It is simply making sure the money is there to pour out of the purse.