SEC found to have trouble with numbers

The Washington Post reports:

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which demands good accounting in the corporate world, has considerable trouble keeping its own books, according to a report this week by federal auditors.

A $58 million accounting problem here. A $102 million mistake there. A $452 million item somewhere else that was not properly disclosed until the auditors caught it.

A review by the Government Accountability Office found “a litany of issues . . . which frankly the SEC should have prevented or detected on its own,” said Jeannette Franzel, a managing director at the GAO.

The problems are not new: Auditors have been issuing warnings about the SEC’s internal accounting for years, and the SEC has acknowledged weaknesses. But the situation worsened in 2010 as temporary patches failed, according to GAO officials.

Great moments in regulation! Many modern day liberals think if only we had a bureau staffed with Elizabeth Warren types everything would be great.