She said publicizing audit summaries might have prevented or reduced cost overruns on numerous weapons systems and military spare-parts acquisitions since the 1980s, when she began advising Pentagon whistle-blowers.
The Defense Department apparently has released just a handful of Iraq-related audits. The Times asked the Army for a precise count two months ago, but had not received an answer as of last week.
Even audits that have been discussed in open congressional hearings are kept from the public. One found that San Diego-based Titan Corp. had deficient payroll records for private translators working for the Army in Iraq, which prompted the Defense Department to withhold payments.
In a Freedom of Information Act request filed about four months ago, The Times sought that audit and others involving Titan in recent years. As of last week, the Pentagon had yet to release even a list of the audits.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), in a written statement, said that audits frequently "disappear into a black hole, never to be seen again."
Peter W. Singer, a national security fellow at the Brookings Institution, said taxpayers had no way of knowing if they were getting their money's worth. "That's really where you're going to catch cost overruns in real time -- in time to do something about it," Singer said of the audits.
Pentagon managers and defense industry representatives say audits like those on the C-130J must stay locked away to safeguard the government's negotiating strategies and contractors' private data. They add that audits can contain errors that might unfairly tarnish contractors if publicized.
"The biggest fear that any company has is that their proprietary information would be made public," said Larry Allen, executive vice president of the Coalition for Government Procurement, a contractors lobby association.
William Reed, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, declined to be interviewed, but in written answers to questions said that many audits were "part of the deliberative process.... Hence, disclosing even the name of the program or contractor could impair the negotiation."
The agency does publicize the annual savings the auditors net for taxpayers. Last year, the figure was $2.2 billion, down from $2.5 billion in 2002 and $3.2 billion in 2001.
