In a testimony to the Senate, Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the U.S. Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), acknowledged the role of bailout funds in stabilizing the economy, but said the program may not fulfill all the policy goals. "The progress on meeting the goal of 'maximizing overall returns to the taxpayer' is unclear," Barofsky said in a testimony to the Senate Banking Committee. "While several TARP recipients have repaid funds for what has widely been reported as a 17 percent profit, it is extremely unlikely that the taxpayer will see a full return on its TARP investment."
For example, a full recovery of more than $80 billion spent to stimulate the U.S. auto industry "is far from certain." Barofsky said the Treasury has repeatedly failed to implement his recommendations to increase disclosures, including detailed reports on what banks are doing with taxpayer funds. "We remain puzzled as to why Treasury refuses to adopt our recommendations to report on each TARP recipient's use of TARP funds," said Barofsky. Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said the department has implemented the "vast majority" of Barofsky's recommendations and has included the inspector general “early” in the development of many programs.
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