WASHINGTON: US taxpayers will probably never recover all of the hundreds of billions of dollars invested to bail out financial firms, automakers and homeowners, a key watchdog for the program said yesterday.

Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the US Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), said in prepared US Senate testimony that the bailout fund played a significant role in stabilizing the financial system, but it may never fulfill certain policy goals.

"The progress on meeting the goal of 'maximizing overall returns to the taxpayer' is unclear," Barofsky said in testimony to be delivered to the Senate Banking Committee.