Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner’s credibility problems aren’t going away.

Elizabeth Warren, chief of congressional oversight panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), testified today that she still had not received any explanation of what TWI’s Mike Lillis called “Treasury’s $80 billion mistake” back on Feb. 6. In a statement submitted to the Senate Finance Committee today, she said “the appropriateness of the overpayment remains, at best, unresolved.”

The rest of Warren’s testimony about TARP was hardly more reassuring. As for the question, “What is Treasury’s strategy?” she said, “Congress and the American public have no clear answer to that question.” Treasury has also failed to ask basic questions about the Term-Backed Asset Loan Facility (TALF), its plan to partner with private investors in buying the bank’s so-called toxic assets, she said. “Until we receive detailed and accurate information, the panel cannot perform its oversight function,” she said.

No surprise that Geithner did not allow Neel Kashkari, head of Treasury’s Office of Financial Stability to testify. His absence left ranking minority member Sen. Charles Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) feeling “disappointed and frustrated.”(PDF). He’s not the only one.

–

TWI is on Twitter. Please follow us here.