The Pentagon cannot account for $4.1 trillion dollars according to a new Department of Defense audit – raising alarm bells not just because of the obvious lack of accountability and oversight, but because the last time the Pentagon ‘lost’ an enormous sum of money, 9/11 happened.
Donald Rumsfeld was due to testify about a missing $2.3 trillion before Congress on September 13 2001, however the case was put on hold after the events of September 11.
The paper trail was destroyed when one side of the Pentagon was blown up, and the $2.3 trillion dollar case was brushed under the rubble.
The new case of the missing trillions, and the combustible political climate in 2024, has left many commentators fearing that “something big is about to happen again.”
The Hill report the nation’s largest federal agency has almost $4.1 trillion in assets, the majority of which cannot be accounted for. The Pentagon has also announced it is unable to fully account for its more than $824 billion budget for 2024.
Federal law since the early 1990s requires mandatory audits for all government agencies, and since fiscal year 2013 all agencies excpet the DOD have been able to satisfy that requirement.
The audit was conducted by independent auditors along with the department Office of the Inspector General.
Michael McCord, under secretary of Defense comptroller and chief financial officer, said that despite the disclaimer of opinion, which he expected, the Defense Department “has turned a corner in its understanding of the depth and breadth of its challenges.”
“Momentum is on our side, and throughout the Department there is strong commitment — and belief in our ability — to achieve an unmodified audit opinion,” he said in a statement.
The Defense Department’s report card as a whole is made up of 28 entities operating under the Pentagon that conducted independent audits.
Of those, nine received an unmodified audit opinion, one received a qualified opinion, 15 received disclaimers and three opinions remain pending. The Pentagon expects the final number of clean or qualified audits to be roughly around what it was last year.
The Pentagon said it is firmly committed to achieving a clean audit by 2028, as mandated by the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
At a Friday briefing with reporters, McCord explained the number of clean audits indicated progress and disputed the characterization that the Pentagon had failed another audit.
“I do not say we failed, as I said, we have about half clean opinions. We have half that are not clean opinions,” he added. “So if someone had a report card that is half good and half not good, I don’t know that you call the student or the report card a failure. We have a lot of work to do, but I think we’re making progress.”
