The Congressional Oversight Panel, a committee created by the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) legislation released its first report today. And because appointments to the panel were made only weeks ago, they had little time to conduct an investigation. So, rather than expose any waste, fraud, or abuse, the panel's 38-page report is an enumeration of questions that it feels Treasury should answer.

To wit:

• What is Treasury's Strategy?
• Is the Strategy Working to Stabilize Markets?
• Is the Strategy Helping to Reduce Foreclosures?
• What Have Financial Institutions Done With the Taxpayers' Money Received So Far?
• Is the Public Receiving a Fair Deal?
• What is Treasury Doing to Help the American Family?
• Is Treasury Imposing Reforms on Financial Institutions that are taking Taxpayer Money?
• How is Treasury Deciding Which Institutions Receive the Money?
• What is the Scope of Treasury's Statutory Authority?
• Is Treasury Looking Ahead?

The report's repeated assertions that the public has a right to know certain information and that the public also needs to understand why Treasury is undertaking the actions that it does is encouraging. We're looking forward to future reports from the panel, which, hopefully, will bring greater transparency to TARP, because this report indicates quite a few areas of opacity in the program.

Image by Flickr user sean dreilinger used under a Creative Commons license.