Pentagon Wastes $400Mln On Audit, Knowing Result Will Be Flawed - US Lawmakers
Fakhir Rizvi Published November 17, 2018 | 12:04 AM
The Department of Defense (DOD) maintained its dubious status as the only agency in the US government to never attain a clean audit after spending more than $400 million on the first-ever comprehensive financial examination knowing the outcome would be flawed, US Senator Charles Grassley said in a press release on Friday.
"While it's commendable that the Defense Department has taken steps to identify specific areas in need of improvement, it's unacceptable that it has spent over $400 million on an audit it knew would come back flawed," Grassley said. "How is it possible that the Pentagon is able to develop the most advanced weapons in the world but can't produce a workable, reliable accounting system?"
A Defense Department press release noted that five of its reporting entities received "unqualified" report and another two received a "modified opinion" - tentative approval with recommended corrective action.
Most of the Defense Department entities received disclaimers, which means they had issues with financial reporting errors, inventory discrepancies and information technology systems security, among others.
A US government website lists more than 50 Defense Department agencies that were presumably included in what was billed as the first-ever complete audit the US military and likely the largest audit ever conducted in the world. Auditors found no evidence of fraud, just sloppy record keeping and alarming security lapses in protecting military ID infrastructure from hackers.
Unlike Grassley, a critic of wasteful spending who has found Defense Department spending $14,000 for toilet seat lids and $1,280 for coffee cups, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe praised the audit as a first step in cleaning up a mess.
"This audit has a lot of good news for the Pentagon and for the American taxpayer," Inhofe said in a statement. "The thorough examination did not find fraudulent use of taxpayer Dollars and showed in countless areas across the Department how the DOD is working to strengthen transparency and demonstrate the importance and benefits of investing in our national defense."
Nevertheless, Inhofe emphasized the audit criticism of the department's IT defenses against hackers - a Primary deficiency cited in the audit.
"It [the audit] found that the Department has not adequately managed user access for IT systems," Inhofe said. "The cybersecurity implications of this failure are serious, and the DOD needs to take swift action to ensure that access controls are widely and forcefully implemented."
Congressman Michael Burgess said the Defense Department must be held to the same level of accountability as other US government agencies when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars.
"Quite simply, the national defense is too important to remain a black box," Burgess said.
Despite failing the audit, Burgess added, its completion provides a much-needed baseline from which to begin future congressional oversight of Defense Department spending.
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