In its first effort at trying to count the nuts, bolts and other things?
(The National Defense budget for FY2019 is estimated @ $693,058.000.00…That’s Billions))
Only 5 of the 21 internal looks, done by over 1,000 auditors working for the the Defense Departments Inspector general, got passing grades…
Congress, even the Republicans, where NOT happy with the results…
The audit cost hundreds of millions of dollars also …
More money spend ….
(From a Defense News piece dated November 16, 2018)
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said: “As expected, this audit has uncovered a number of matters that Congress and the Pentagon must work together to address. We must take advantage of this opportunity to continue our reform efforts and make the Pentagon more efficient and agile.”
And, Thornberry said, the audit “should not be used as an excuse for arbitrary cuts that reverse the progress we have begun on rebuilding our strength and readiness.”
That’s good, as the audit does not come with a single digit spelling out how much money the department could save, or recovered through this process. Instead, the report breaks down issues by group and individual area studied, making an overall figure hard to come by.
One figure that is available: the audit itself cost $413 million, which the department notes is roughly 1/30 of one percent of the Pentagon’s overall budget. In addition, $406 million was spend on addressing issues found by the department, with another $153 million on “financial system fixes,” per a DoD factsheet — a total in FY18 of $972 million.
The bad
“We didn’t pass. That’s the blunt and bottom line. We have issues and we’re gonna go fix them.”
That is the overall assessment from the Pentagon’s comptroller, David Norquist, who spoke with reporters ahead of the official release of the audit report.
An overarching issue revolves around inventory management challenges. That is, systems in one place saying an item is usable, or missing, when the truth on the ground is different. Another major issue — the single largest issue discovered across the board — comes from the IT realm….
…
The good
It’s not all gloom and doom, however.
The good news for the department comes in three flavors. First, military pay came back clean, a big relief for Norquist, given the sheer amount of money that goes out for military salaries every year. Secondly, the department could account for all its major defense articles – systems such as tanks and ships, which would be both embarrassing and dangerous to have lost .in the system
And third, auditors found no evidence of fraud or abuse in their research. That doesn’t mean none exists – the auditors used statically significant samples in their research – but the absence of any fraud uncovered is a good sign, Norquist said.
image…theguardian
Note…
One would image that the auditors REALLY didn’t get to see how the US Defense Dept. spends ALL its money since some programs are hidden in other departments and are ‘black or secret’….
No surprise here.
The Military is,by far, the worst run and most wasteful bureaucracy in the government.
Can you imagine the outrage among Republicans if a similar audit had the same findings for welfare programs?
The Military is inherently wasteful and needs to be fully reformed .Its been said here that the Military has become more of a gigantic jobs program than a necessary defense for our country.
That might be true ,but the waste here is incredible and the incompetence even greater.
A massive cut in the military budget is long overdue,But I won’t hold my breath waiting for it to happen.
And THAT is the key statement Jack….
A GIANT jobs program….
THAT makes it almost impossible to make significant cuts….
Remember when they tried to cut back bases?
Impossible?No
Will lacking to do so?Sure.
There certainly though is No rationale for “increasing “ this waste as the Republicans want to do.
Remember the sequester?
Was THAT only attached to Barack Obama
No I think it’s still in effect.
That is why Trump and the Republicans are desperately trying to reach a budget deal.
The sequester could be coming back to kick them in the behind?