Exclusive: The Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud Exposed ($21 trillion)

The Nation ^

[TigerClaws]

November 15, Ernst & Young and other private firms that were hired to audit the Pentagon announced that they could not complete the job. Congress had ordered an independent audit of the Department of Defense, the government’s largest discretionary cost center—the Pentagon receives 54 cents out of every dollar in federal appropriations—after the Pentagon failed for decades to audit itself. The firms concluded, however, that the DoD’s financial records were riddled with so many bookkeeping deficiencies, irregularities, and errors that a reliable audit was simply impossible.

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To make sure that fiscal year 2015 was not an anomaly, Skidmore and his graduate students expanded their inquiry, examining OIG reports on Pentagon financial records stretching back to 1998. Time and again, they found that the amounts of money reported as having flowed into and out of the Defense Department were gargantuan, often dwarfing the amounts Congress had appropriated: $1.7 trillion in 1998, $2.3 trillion in 1999, $1.1 trillion in 2000, $1.1 trillion in 2007, $875 billion in 2010, and $1.7 trillion in 2012, plus amounts in the hundreds of billions in other years.

In all, at least a mind-boggling $21 trillion of Pentagon financial transactions between 1998 and 2015 could not be traced, documented, or explained, concluded Skidmore. To convey the vastness of that sum, $21 trillion is roughly five times more than the entire federal government spends in a year. It is greater than the US Gross National Product, the world’s largest at an estimated $18.8 trillion. And that $21 trillion includes only plugs that were disclosed in reports by the Office of Inspector General, which does not review all of the Pentagon’s spending.

[Wuli]

As correct as you may be, (a) “the accounting system is messed up” cannot be accepted as an excuse, a raionale or a reason to just ignore the discrepancies, however (b) I think there is some intention - on the part of some - that the actual DOD spending NOT be fully transparent - if it is to Congress it is to the world.

The PROBLEM is that all the good reasons for that leaves tons of gateways for corruption as well.

[VideoDoctor]

When will they ever be ALLOWED to audit The FED Federal Reserve System )

If they did it could very well lead to the collapse and demise of the FED.

The FED directly and indirectly control America's economy and they are NOT even a branch of our government... and THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN AUDITED in modern times.

[semimojo]

...the accounting system is messed up” cannot be accepted as an excuse, a raionale or a reason to just ignore the discrepancies...

Very true, and I'm hoping the fact that they've at last had a public audit, and they seem to be pretty open about the results, is a good sign.

...there is some intention - on the part of some - that the actual DOD spending NOT be fully transparent...

Can't imagine anyone arguing with that.

[ldish]

Don’t just start or stop with the DOD take a look at each of the others...bet ya the rate of money lost is even higher in other departments...maybe not the total amount, but the amount of the fraud in DEW and other places is just as high or higher, of course...they all want to target DOD and the message is clear...there are a bunch of thefts in DOD and all of their suppliers and enhancers in congress and throughout gov just as Eisenhower said in 59-60!

[Robert DeLong]

We wonder how Presidents come in with little wealth and leave very wealthy? Not to mention other government people, like Comey, Mueller, Clintons, etc., etc., etc.