U.S. securities regulators have made numerous missteps in procuring and managing contracts including office leases, the agency’s internal watchdog said on Thursday.

Securities and Exchange Commission Inspector General David Kotz told a U.S. House panel he has uncovered all kinds of problems with contracts, including excessive payments and additional money that had to be spent after errors forced the agency to cancel contracts with vendors.

He spoke before the U.S. House financial services appropriations subcommittee, the panel tasked with overseeing the SEC’s budget.

His testimony comes as House Republicans are calling for cuts in government spending across the board. Many Republicans unhappy with key provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial reform act have indicated that they may try to keep the agency from implementing them by starving its budget.

“The two largest areas in which we have identified significant waste have been procurement and contracting and costs relating to real property leasing and office spaces,” Kotz said.

To the SEC’s credit, Kotz said the agency has taken many of his recommendations to heart and worked to correct them. The SEC’s new chief information officer, for instance, recently announced plans to cancel a $2 million technology contract that he didn’t think was cost-effective, Kotz said.

Still, these findings will not likely do much to instill confidence in Republicans. Several of them on the panel Thursday still had lingering questions about the SEC’s failure to catch Bernard Madoff’s estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Kotz said he believes the SEC has come a long way since then, but indicated he will remain vigilant. He said budget cuts could be problematic for the SEC because it could make it harder for the agency to protect investors from fraud.