US protection officers couldn’t present auditors with the required info to even fill out their analysis
The US Protection Division has flunked its sixth annual unbiased audit, having did not even present auditors with sufficient monetary knowledge to finish their analysis, a report launched on Wednesday revealed.
The general outcomes of the audit – the sixth that the Pentagon has failed because it was required to start auditing itself in 2018 – had been a “disclaimer of opinion,” the worst of three doable grades and the identical score the division obtained final yr. The outcome took into consideration 29 part audits, of which 18 had been additionally flunked with disclaimers of opinion. Simply seven elements obtained “unqualified opinions,” probably the most fascinating score, whereas one other one obtained a “certified opinion.”
Pentagon Chief Monetary Officer Michael McCord tried to border the audit outcomes positively, stating in a press launch accompanying the report that his division was “making progress towards the aim of a clear audit.”
McCord acknowledged in a name with reporters on Wednesday that the Pentagon had not anticipated to cross the audit, however insisted it was transferring towards resolving its steadiness of funds with the Treasury Division. He additionally touted the usage of automated applications for rote duties, stating that “bots” had saved 600,000 hours of labor between the Navy and Air Drive alone, and claimed the Pentagon had executed an in depth stock of its stockpiles in the midst of supplying billions of {dollars} in navy support to Ukraine.
Nevertheless, the Pentagon stays the one cabinet-level division by no means to have obtained a clear monetary invoice of well being. With $3.8 trillion in property, $4 trillion in liabilities, and little significant oversight, the potential for waste and fraud is immense, based on the Authorities Accountability Workplace, which has included the division’s enterprise programs modernization and monetary administration initiatives on its “Excessive Danger Checklist” – an inventory of federal applications most vulnerable to fraud, abuse, mismanagement, and waste – for almost 30 years.
The Pentagon consumes greater than half of the US discretionary price range, with most in Washington cautious of slicing navy spending lest they run afoul of the protection trade, a supply of hefty donations to each side of the political aisle, based on OpenSecrets.org, which tracks political contributions. Protection Division employees have admitted to “misplacing” trillions of {dollars} in transactions in accounting discrepancies which have by no means been resolved.
Efforts to rein in profligate protection spending in Congress have repeatedly failed. The Audit the Pentagon Act, which might penalize any division of the navy that fails its annual audit by forcing it to forfeit 1% of its price range, was launched once more within the Senate final yr after the Protection Division was unable to account for greater than half of its property. Nevertheless, it by no means made it to the ground for a vote.
You may share this story on social media:
Supply hyperlink
