How to Keep Track of $20,000,000,000?

"The Coalition Provisional Authority [in Iraq] failed to keep detailed accounts of how most of the Iraqi money was spent,” according to an audit report released in February by the Office of Special Inspector General for Iraq Recons­truc­tion. “Expenditures [of the roughly $20 billion in Devel­opment Fund for Iraq money used by the CPA] were initially tracked on an Excel spreadsheet—hardly a sufficient control.” When Sojourners asked Microsoft for a response to this use of its spreadsheet application program, a spokesperson replied, “Microsoft Excel is a powerful and widely used tool that helps people analyze information and make informed decisions. We have no further comments to share on this topic.”