WASHINGTON - THE head of a congressional panel overseeing the US$700 billion (S$1 trillion) bailout programme says she is 'shocked' that officials trying to follow where the money has gone still have many unanswered questions.

Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Warren, appearing on national television on Friday as her panel released a critical report on the rescue fund, said Congress 'may want to take a very hard look' at how the money has been used by the banks that got the bulk of the initial disbursements.

Dr Warren told ABC's Good Morning America that the Treasury Department 'didn't put any tracking mechanisms on it'. Dr Warren also said: 'They didn't tell the banks what they had to do in order to get the money. It might be used for lending, it might be used to buy other banks ... Or it might just be stuffed in vaults and left there.' -- AP