Waste and Abuse: Pentagon Fails 7th Consecutive Audit
The Pentagon has failed its seventh annual audit in a row, failing to fully account for its $824 billion budget for the past year. But as per American Military News, the Pentagon has claimed that it has made progress and is moving toward finally passing the audit in the next few years.
The Department of Defense (DOD) posted an official statement about its seventh audit on November 15 on its website. Without using the word “failing,” the DOD titled its statement “Department of Defense Completes Seventh Consecutive Department-Wide Financial Statement Audit” and declared that of the 28 reporting entities undergoing standalone financial statement audits, 15 received disclaimers of opinion.
In auditing lingo, as explained by the financial education site WallStreetMojo, a disclaimer of opinion means that auditors could not confidently verify the truth of a company’s financial statements. The site adds:
“For a company, disclaimers can prove catastrophic. An audit disclaimer of opinion harms a company’s reputation and goodwill.”
Of the 28 audited entities, only 9 received unmodified audit opinions, which indicate a clean audit.
But despite half of the audited entities receiving such a disclaimer, the DOD statement on its latest audit patted the department on its back and claimed that it has “turned a corner.”
The non-profit NationofChange published an article by Alexis Sterling on November 19 to draw attention to the need for immediate action to reform the Pentagon. The article wrote:
Reforming the Pentagon requires immediate action to impose accountability and ensure taxpayer funds are used effectively. Proposals to penalize failed audits, increase oversight of contractors, and enforce stricter financial controls must be prioritized by lawmakers.
Sterling also commented that despite failing every independent audit since 2018, the Pentagon has been funded by the Congress with trillions of dollars, which raises questions about lawmakers’ commitment to accountability.
On his show, satirist and political commentator Jimmy Dore mocked the audit failure by the DOD and showed a video clip of Biden’s Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks denying that failing an audit implies waste, fraud, and abuse in the department.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/gJQa5HB567c
Conservative Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama disagreed with this denial of Hicks and called it a total waste as he commented on the audit on Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox News. Tuberville said the incoming Trump administration needs to “stink bomb” the Pentagon to cleanse it of the bureaucrats and useless employees including the many four-star generals.
Got an ashtray to sell?
Look at the Federal Budget, by category. Total budget, Defense is third behind health and social security. But there’s a rub in that because SS is really a sinking fund, our money, that is being returned to us. Medical is a hybrid where some is being returned to us, but the rest is tax dollars from the general fund. For the full budget, Defense is 16%.
If you take those out, and only count discretionary spending, defense is 50%.
I have long said the best thing to fix the defense spending, and help the US budgeting, is cut defense 10%. That would be between 1.6 of the total budget and 5% of discretionary. That will get them to sharpen the pencils, get the math right, and I bet not lower our defense capabilities one iota.
Tuberville’s quest to stink bomb the place and get rid of the poor performers is stupid. He will create a witch hunt and will not affect either spending or accounting. He is just a dumb jock sorry, with limited experience outside of that field and numerous failures in business or investing. He single handily did more harm tot he military than any other in Congress.
As an Independent, I have no problem with a DOGE department. What I find ironic is that we constantly hear of government inefficiency and wasteful departments but yet we have to create ANOTHER department to get rid of the other departments!!! What is wrong with our government that Congress cannot do this on its own? I am against Musk heading it with that finger wagging Indo-American Wamiswamee. Why can’t we have an Independent corporate head lead this effort – oh I forgot, Musk has 18 contracts with the federal government. So this is how he will protect his own while shaming and obliterating others.
Sad thing is that I believe most Americans do not understand what some of these departments do for them.
But I am glad that Pakistanis like Dumpster are concerned!!!
The runaway costs to America and most issues creating a drain on the American
People and Economy when traced back to its origins is INSURANCE!
An industry that does not have to show income?
An industry that collects NOW and does not want to pay later!
Whether Health, Life, Vehicle, Work, Federal, State, down to just plain medical!
The insurance industry is the hungry animal eating everyone’s income!
Government Waist is just an off chute of the same tactic!
One starting place for the Pentagon might be to look at how many of the military bases we maintain in 130 countries, are really of value to US. I figure that at least half are little more than foreign aid under a different name. We rent facilities from the country we’re “protecting” while also using local labor and contractors. In many places, we fund the cost of getting infrastructure at least in the cities where we are, and in some cases pay to upgrade utilities for the whole country, ostensibly to assure that our bases are 100% functional.
And no, that 130 bases do not include marines guarding our embassies.