Pentagon Audit Finds Something Disturbing
(WatchDogReport.org) – The Department of Defense (DOD) regularly takes up more than half of the discretionary spending approved by Congress on a yearly basis and has assets that range from personnel to office supplies and from Jeeps to the newly unveiled B-21 Raider stealth bomber. More simply put, it’s big. Okay, really big. However, a recently completed audit has shown how the powers that be are not able to adequately demonstrate they know where to find the vast majority of their resources.
Pentagon fails to pass new financial audit for the 5th year in a row; only manages to account for 39% of its $3.5 trillion in assets. More than $2 trillion in assets are missing. https://t.co/ODT3kZek62
— Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) November 23, 2022
Federal law requires all the different agencies operated by the government to conduct regular audits and, according to an article published in The Hill, all but one have managed to comply since the fiscal year 2013. The lumbering giant that is run out of the Pentagon didn’t manage to accomplish that until 2017.
The 2022 version of the DOD report involved roughly 1,600 auditors who completed 27 standalone audits compiled by the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). It covered approximately $3.5 trillion in assets. Of the five yearly audits it has completed, the number of those that would receive a passing grade is … wait for it … zero.
Of the massive monetary amount of the assets the DOD holds, the auditor found that 61% of it could not be accounted for, which computes to just over $2.1 trillion of the total. Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord seemed to view this through rose-colored glasses, graciously conceding that they didn’t get an “A,” but it is a sign that they are getting better.
Copyright 2022, WatchDogReport.org
