Earlier this month the auditing agency said that the Bush administration had illegally withheld data from Congress on the projected cost of the new Medicare law.

At one point, the director of a collective farm was complaining about the redundant and incompetent auditing agencies that monopolized his time.

An international auditing agency has questioned the occupation authority's management of the Iraqi money it spent directly, charging a lack of oversight and overuse of non-competitive contracts.

President Zedillo moved to strengthen the Government's auditing agency to emphasize his commitment to combating corruption.

The auditing agencies must be more vigilant in their oversight of indirect costs.

In time, what was once a simple Exchequer of Receipts developed into a central auditing agency, branched off, and eventually specialized into a full-time court.

And magazines and newspapers have independent auditing agencies that verify circulation.

Last week he ordered Francisco Barrio, head of the government's internal auditing agency, to investigate the expenditures.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said the decision to withhold the money came from the Defense Department's auditing agency, which found "the possibility of substantial overcharges."

Interest in this case has been heightened by the sudden, mysterious deaths of the Government auditor assigned to the case and the head of the auditing agency.