The Department of Defense has failed its seventh consecutive audit, missing more than $824 billion in budget for 2024, the Department of Defense Inspector General's Office (DOD IOG) announced Friday.
DOD OIG said the auditors “failed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to support their opinion.”
The audit was conducted by an independent accounting firm and looked at 27 different Department of Defense components.
Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch said in a statement that little progress has been made since 2005, nearly 20 years ago.
“While the Department of Defense made some progress in improving its financial controls in its fiscal year 2024 financial statement audit, many of the weaknesses identified have not been remediated since 2005,” he said. added.
Moving toward an unmodified opinion requires continued efforts to address root causes and implement corrective actions. The Department of Defense must continue to address the Secretary of Defense audit priorities. Aggressively retiring noncompliant systems and modernizing the Department of Defense's financial management systems will substantially support these efforts. However, achieving a clear audit opinion is not solely in the hands of financial management professionals, but includes the entire process and system for accountability and tracking the use of DoD assets.
According to auditDOD OIG auditors found 28 material weaknesses, two material deficiencies, and six noncompliance with laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements.
A material weakness is defined as “a material misstatement in the financial statements that is significant enough to preclude management from promptly detecting and correcting it,” whereas a material weakness is defined as “a material misstatement in the financial statements that is so significant that management is unable to promptly detect and correct it,” while a material weakness is “a material misstatement in the financial statements that is significant enough to preclude the ability of management to promptly detect and correct it,” while a material weakness is defined as “a material misstatement in the financial statements that is significant enough to prevent management from promptly detecting and correcting it.” is defined as “important enough to be formally communicated to management.”
Michael McCord, the Pentagon's comptroller and chief financial officer, addressed the audit in an off-camera briefing with reporters Friday afternoon, calling it “not surprising.”
“I know that on the surface it doesn't look like we're making progress. But that's not the case. The Department is turning a corner in understanding the challenges and, more importantly, in addressing those challenges. “I believe that we have met,” he asserted.
He added: “The momentum is on our side and across the department. There is a strong commitment and belief that we can deliver an uncensored opinion on behalf of the department's senior leadership. I am confident that the Department of Defense will We appreciate that Congress continues to make progress toward its mission of achieving an unmodified audit opinion in fiscal year 28.”
McCord argued that failing the audit is not the same as not knowing what assets the department has, and that the Pentagon was able to send the equipment to Ukraine without incident.
“We have seen real-world examples, especially in Ukraine over the last two years. And what we haven't seen is people say, “According to my records, I have a thousand of these, and I want to give 10 of them to Ukraine.'' But then we realize that we don't have 1,000 or that we can't do it. Unless you find 1000 pieces, you won't know what the 1000 pieces look like. ”
He added: “We have pretty good real-world experience here that if you know what you have and you can get it, you can quickly get it to someone. Because they are fighting for their lives against it,” he added. We had no such problem. ”
McCord said it would be “unfair” to say the Pentagon failed the audit.
“I'm not saying we've failed. Like I said, we have about half a legitimate opinion,” he said.
“If someone's report card is half good and half bad, I don't understand why you would call that student or report card a failure. There's a lot of work to be done, but as I said, progress is being made. “I think I do,” he argued.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida), an ally of President-elect Donald Trump, said in a post on X:
The Pentagon once again failed to appropriate a massive budget of more than $820 billion in taxpayer-funded funding. If we want to be the most lethal and powerful fighting force on the planet, we not only need to fund our defense, we need to do it wisely. You can't do that if you can't tell anyone how the Pentagon is spending its nearly $1 trillion budget funded by American taxpayers. The US federal government currently has over $36 trillion in debt. That's $9 trillion more than when President Biden took office, thanks to our addiction to reckless spending. It's time for a reckoning, and I'm confident the Senate will approve it once President Trump takes office. When @PeteHegseth becomes Secretary of Defense and the new @DOGE comes into play, we will finally be accountable to American taxpayers, terrorize our enemies, and respect our allies with the unawakened deadly You will have an army of After years of Americans blaming the Biden-Harris Administration for its mistakes and failures, our government needs a wake-up call, and President Trump will soon give it.
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