Through the use of "unvouchered" funds - virtually free from any external oversight or accounting - the CIA could write chequws to finance secret programmes, such as the U-2.
As it turned out, Lockheed produced the 20 aircraft at a total of $18,977,597 (including $1.9 million in profit), or less than $1 million per plane. It was all "under budget", the report noted, calling it "a miracle in today's defence contracting world".
