The semi-annual reports made by the Inspector General's Office of the Department of Defense (IG, DoD), the latest addition to worthy servants chasing after unscrupulous knaves, are important for several reasons. Defense expenditures have been a priority in the 1980s and have increased in relation to most federal expenditures. The distribution of these expenditures among the major branches of the armed forces has been a contentious issue and has illustrated shifts in overall strategy and military tactics. Furthermore, the dependence of the federal government on large oligarchic contractors for the production of weaponry and intermediate research and development make public accountability and responsibility vulnerable to private sector accounting and resource integration, even apart from keeping track of sheer volume and diversity of defense allocations. DoD audit responsibilities to evaluate the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of management are met by eleven internal organizations.