The Pentagon this week failed — for the sixth time in a row — the annual audit of its $3.8 trillion worth of assets located across the United States and in countries around the world.
🚨 BREAKING: THE PENTAGON HAS FAILED ITS SIXTH AUDIT IN A ROW
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) November 16, 2023
More on the latest failed Pentagon audit via Defense News:
Since the Pentagon began auditing itself in 2018 — the last department to do so after Congress required the practice across the government in 1990 — it’s solved some of its easiest accounting problems. Now change each year is more incremental.
If there’s change at all, that is — last year, auditors only rated seven of the nearly 30 sub-audits as clean. This year too there were seven.
One other was rated as “qualified,” the next step down in accounting jargon. Three more audits are still ongoing. The remaining 18 were given failing grades.
Pentagon officials have tried to reassure the public there is progress, despite the same topline rating.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) reacted to the news in a post on X, formerly Twitter, in which he said it's clear Americans "need accountability and transparency" and reiterated his call for an independent audit of the Pentagon given its apparent inability to successfully audit itself. "No institution is above scrutiny," Sen. Paul added, "especially the DoD" which has the largest budget among federal agencies.
The House Oversight Committee, led by Chairman James Comer (R-KY), said on X that "DOD’s inability to adequately track assets risks our military readiness and represents a flagrant disregard for taxpayer funds, even as it receives nearly a trillion dollars annually."
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