In a prepared US Senate testimony Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the U.S. Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), said that US taxpayers will likely fail to get their money back that were invested in financial companies. He noted that while these funds played a significant role in stabilizing the economic system the bailout may never fulfill certain policy goals.

"The progress on meeting the goal of 'maximizing overall returns to the taxpayer' is unclear," Barofsky said in testimony to be delivered to the Senate Banking Committee. "While several TARP recipients have repaid funds for what has widely been reported as a 17 percent profit, it is extremely unlikely that the taxpayer will see a full return on its TARP investment." 

Barofsky said that $50 billion in funds allocated to modify mortgages to reduce monthly payments will never yield a direct return, while full recovery of the more than $80 billion spent to prop up the U.S. auto industry "is far from certain.”

Treasury has earmarked $699 billion of the funds to 12 different programs, including a $134.5 billion cushion of funds available for future use. It has disbursed or committed to disburse $445 billion.

Under the terms of the program that was approved by the Congress last October 2008 the goal was to buy up the toxic assets weighing down bank balance sheets but after some time the idea was declined and substituted for direct capital injections into banks as the financial crisis reached its peak.

Although the Treasury has improved its transparency in administering the program it still failed to implement recommendations of the inspector general to increase disclosures, including detailed reports on what banks are doing with taxpayer funds.

Barofsky noted that the Treasury does not intend to disclose trading activities, holdings and asset valuations in so-called public-private investment partnerships that are being created to buy troubled assets.

On the other end Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said the department has implemented the "vast majority" of Barofsky's recommendations and has included the inspector general early in the development of many programs.