(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-11 20:02

WASHINGTON -- Wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have been cut off for the body has failed to pay its phone bills in time, the US Justice Department said in a report released Thursday.

Over half of 990 telecommunications surveillance bills in five unidentified FBI field offices have not been paid in time. In one office alone, unpaid wiretaps bills to one phone company totaled US$66,000, according to the audit report.

The FBI's negligence in monitoring money used by the undercover investigations should be blamed for the lost connections, the report said.

Citing one case, the report said that a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation, a most sensitive and secretive spying practice by the government, "was halted due to untimely payment."

"We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence," the report said.

In response, the FBI's Assistant Director John Miller said that the bureau is working to fix the problems.

"While there is widespread agreement 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.