Dear Secretary Geithner:
Recently, my staff conducted a review of the Quarterly Report to Congress dated October21, 2009, prepared by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset ReliefProgram (SIGTARP/OIG). One of the responsibilities of the OIG is to providerecommendations to the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury). Many of theserecommendations were designed to facilitate transparency, effective oversight, and to preventfraud, waste, and abuse of taxpayer money.
As you know, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) program wascreated by the Federal Reserve to ensure that creditworthy households and businesses haveaccess to credit. As part of its ongoing effort to protect taxpayer money released through TARP,SIGTARP has recommended that Treasury take several steps in relation to TALF. It is withgreat concern that I learn that many of these recommendations have not been implemented.Specifically, Treasury has not implemented the following SIGTARP recommendations:
1) Agreements with TALF participants should include acknowledgements that theparticipants are subject to OFS-Compliance and SIGTARP oversight;
2) Parties on whom conditions are imposed as part of TALF should establish internalcontrols and certify compliance with those conditions;
3) Treasury and the Federal Reserve should provide for public disclosure through SIGTARPthe identity of borrowers who surrender collateral in TALF; and
4) Treasury should dispense with rating agency determinations and require security-bysecurityscreening for each legacy Residential Mortgage-Backed Security (RMBS).
In addition, taxpayers across the United States are greatly interested in knowing how theirmoney is being spent and whether their government is doing all it can to protect it from fraud,waste, and abuse. Accordingly, please provide me with an update on the status of theserecommendations immediately. If no action has been taken, I ask that you state whetherTreasury plans to implement the recommendation and, if not, why not.
I thank you in advance for your cooperation and request that you provide the requesteddocuments and written responses by no later than December 4, 2009.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley Ranking Member
Cc: The Honorable Neil M. Barofsky Special Inspector General Office of the Special Inspector General Troubled Asset Relief Program
