Free Republic

Federal law since the early 1990s requires mandatory audits for all government agencies. The Pentagon didn’t begin auditing itself until 2018 and has only had incremental improvement yearly. This time around, 1,600 auditors combed through DOD’s $3.8 trillion in assets and $4 trillion in liabilities, conducting some 700 site visits. They found that half of DOD’s assets can’t be accounted for.

The U.S. Department of Defense has, once again, failed a comprehensive financial audit. The audit is the fifth comprehensive review the department has completed, and the fifth where auditors were unable to find sufficient record keeping for the DoD to pass off on a clean audit. This year’s DoD-wide audit report involved 27 smaller component audits, of which seven component audits received “unmodified opinions,” which mean that auditors determined the underlying military financial information was recorded fairly and in line with U.S. accounting standards. One component audit received a “qualified opinion,” meaning auditors found material accounting misstatements that were not...

Detailing the specifics of waste or even graft that has transpired inside the military-industrial-security complex is a task that could get an investigator killed. The biggest cash cow is wrapped in the flag and exists within a culture where mere scrutiny lays open charges of being unpatriotic. Munitions merchants maintain a special relationship with Generals and Admirals who promote, protect or facilitate the continuous development and deployment of weapon systems. The revolving door of influence rewards compromised legislatures or bureaucrats with executive payoffs when they leave government service. Senator Enzi Seeks Timeline for Ongoing Pentagon Audit, shows concern that this...

Well that’s great. The question is how useful will this audit actually be, and how truthful? In the 3 years since the birth of this site we have chronicled plenty of examples of waste in the military. It is PERVASIVE. The level of waste speaks frankly to a culture of accounting negligence at the Pentagon which is perhaps only rivaled by the chicanery at the Federal Reserve. Heads (and many many heads at all levels) should have rolled long ago. But, because a large portion of the American people have given the US military a pass on waste (Republicans) nothing...