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FBI building in Washington
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A telephone company cut off an FBI international wiretap after the agency failed to pay its bill on time, according to a US government audit released on Thursday.
The Justice Department's inspector general faulted the FBI for poor handling of money used in undercover investigations, which it said made the agency vulnerable to theft and mishandled invoices.
It cited the case in which a wiretap under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs electronic spying in terrorism and intelligence cases, was disrupted due to an overdue bill.
"Late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence," the audit said.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said "no investigations were adversely affected."
The audit cited a 2006 case in which an FBI employee pleaded guilty to stealing more than $25,000 in confidential case funds intended for undercover telecoms services.
In response, the FBI's Assistant Director John Miller said that the bureau is working to fix the problems.
"While there is widespread agreement in the agency that the current financial management system, first introduced in the 1980s is inadequate, the FBI will not tolerate financial mismanagement, or worse, and is addressing the issues identified in the audit," John Miller said.
The FBI has agreed to accept 11 of the 16 recommendations to improve the agency's tracking and management of the funding system to prevent such failure in phone bill payment.
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(Agencies)
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據上周四公布的一份美國政府審計報告，美國聯邦調查局由于未及時繳納電話費，其國際竊聽線路被電信公司切斷。
美國司法部監察長譴責FBI對秘密調查經費管理不善，從而導致該機構經常發生盜用公款和亂開發票的事件。
該報告稱，美國聯邦調查局曾在《外國情報監聽法》框架下實施的一項監聽活動曾因拖欠電話費而被切斷線路。《外國情報監聽法》是一項有關在反恐和竊取外國情報過程中實施電子監聽的法案。
該審計報告稱，“由于拖欠電話費，電信運營公司切斷了用于向FBI傳輸監聽結果的電話線路，從而導致證據丟失。”
美國聯邦調查局發言人理查德?科爾克稱，“本次拖欠話費未對秘密調查活動造成不利影響”。
該報告還提到2006年的一起FBI工作人員盜用公款案，這名工作人員承認自己盜用了2.5萬多美元的秘密通訊服務費。
FBI副局長約翰?米勒說，目前聯邦調查局正在著手解決這些資金管理不善的問題。
他說：“聯邦調查局內部普遍認為，于上世紀80年代引進的財務管理系統現已過時。聯邦調查局不會任由財務管理的混亂狀況繼續發展下去，而且目前機構內部也正在著手解決審計報告中提到的一系列問題。”
為了改善FBI資金系統的監管工作，防止拖欠電話費事件的再度發生，審計報告中還提出了16條整改建議，FBI已同意采納其中的11條。
（英語點津姍姍編輯）
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