After Pledge of Transparency, Treasury Department Blackens Out Contract

"Consistent with Congress' intent, we are committed to transparency and oversight in all aspects of the program," said Neel Kashkari, the U.S. Department of Treasury's point man for the $700 billion bailout, back on October 13, 2008. But despite Treasury's promise back then that they would release the figure the government is paying the Bank of New York Mellon (BoNYM) to manage and distribute cash from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), they still have refused to make the information public. A current copy of BoNYM's contract with the government obtained by ProPublica, a public interest journalism group, still has the compensation figures blackened out, as they were two months ago, still keeping taxpayers in the dark about how much they are paying BoNYM to administer the program.