(WatchDogReport.org) – A November 15 independent audit revealed that the Pentagon failed to get a passing grade on its accounting system for the sixth year in a row. In a press conference, the chief financial officer of the Defense Department, Mike McCord, said that while “things are showing progress,” it is not enough. He added that even when the Pentagon is making efforts to improve the “health” of its financial accounting system, it could take years before the agency could finally pass an audit.
According to a Pentagon statement, seven of the Defense Department’s 29 sub-agencies received a passing grade, as they got a “clean” or “unmodified” audit opinion in 2023. The Pentagon added that another sub-agency got a “qualified” audit opinion, and the rest failed.
As reported by The Epoch Times, the DOD remains the only Cabinet-level department in the United States that has never passed a financial report. Despite the failure, the Pentagon stated that it made some progress in different areas and that no new material weaknesses were found in the last DOD audit.
In a letter accompanying the auditing report, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the Pentagon owes taxpayers a comprehensive and “clean” financial “bill of health.” While he also noted that the Pentagon needs to “do better,” he said that it will take some time before the agency is able to get an “overall passing grade.”
Austin also pointed out that while there will be no “easy solutions,” he will make significant efforts to make the 29 sub-agencies pass so the Pentagon can get the approval. He also promised to focus on resolving the problems that prevent the agency from moving forward and said he would “accelerate” the Pentagon’s “audit remediation” efforts.
The agency started to audit itself back in 2018. It was the last department in the United States to do so after the House of Representatives obliged the practice across every single government agency in 1990.
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