For all its flaws, the Division of Protection has one factor going for it: predictability. You may at all times depend on the DOD to fail miserably of their bookkeeping efforts yr after yr with little to no accountability.
This yr is similar, with the Pentagon failing its sixth consecutive audit. Not solely did they fail the audit, that they had no marked enchancment from the final failed audit.
Naturally, nobody has been fired or resigned from this continued failure to account for trillions in taxpayer {dollars}, simply the standard statements about “incremental progress,” “complexity of the company,” and basic “Gosh guys, we’ll attempt higher subsequent time” mentality. At this level, it’s time to ask, what’s the level anymore of this charade?
BREAKING: The US Protection Division has failed its monetary audit for the sixth consecutive yr
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) November 16, 2023
Simply pitiful
Identical to final yr and the yr earlier than that and the yr earlier than that, the Pentagon failed its audit. It’s vital to notice that they’ve but to go their audit.
Much more embarrassing, they not solely failed this yr but in addition acquired the identical outcomes as final yr, with solely certainly one of 4 of the Pentagon’s auditing models passing. Damaged down even additional, out of the 29 sub-audits, solely seven handed…once more…identical as final yr.
The auditors discovered that half of the Division of Protection’s belongings can’t be accounted for. The DOD ought to have $3.8 trillion plus $4 trillion in liabilities of their cost.
RELATED: The Legacy Of the United States’ Secret Wars, Past and Present
Consider this for a spell – half of the virtually $8 trillion of belongings, the Pentagon can’t discover or account for. That’s almost $4 trillion of American taxpayer {dollars} simply *poof* gone into the ether that’s protection monetary administration and accounting.
What if a small enterprise proprietor couldn’t account for half of their belongings come tax audit time? They’d a minimum of have a positive, in all probability lose their enterprise, and will even face some jail time.
Not the large wigs within the five-sided constructing; they get to shrug it off and declare to attempt higher subsequent time.
And naturally, their $800+ billion funds will proceed to develop
Deputy Protection Secretary Kathleen Hicks loses composure when pressed about authorities fraud, waste, and abuse pic.twitter.com/SBajxUOJpH
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) April 9, 2023
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Empty outrage
Simply as has been finished yr after yr, this predictable failed audit was met with condemnation from each side of the political aisle. Republican Senator Rand Paul, who’s at all times fast to criticize the struggle machine, wrote:
“The latest failure of the Pentagon’s sixth audit couldn’t make it clearer that we’d like accountability & transparency. No establishment is above scrutiny, particularly the DOD with the most important funds of ANY federal company.”
RELATED: Pentagon Admits It Can’t Account for $2 Trillion – AGAIN
Scrutiny the DOD will get, it’s the accountability that’s missing as a result of nobody appears succesful or prepared to implement any.
Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee said:
“Time to cease misdirecting a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} away from home and human must pad pointless funds traces for infinite wars, failed weapons, & the Pentagon’s company handouts.”
Oh honey, it’s long gone time to have finished any of that. As an alternative, it’s simply too straightforward to capitulate to no matter trumped-up battle on some international land is hailed as a essential subject of nationwide safety, prompting the approval of continued report ranges of funding for the military-industrial advanced.
The Pentagon has failed its sixth straight audit.
$3.8 trillion vanished into skinny air.
Some other group would face penalties.
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) November 16, 2023
Minimize the act
Auditing the Division of Protection is an train in futility. It costs the American taxpayers $428 million to conduct the audit within the first place and a further $472 million to repair the issues the auditors uncover.
Basically, extra of your hard-earned cash goes right into a course of that may inevitably come out with an unclean audit of a system that receives report quantities of your taxpayer {dollars}. The cherry on high is that much more of your cash will get flushed into allegedly “fixing” the issues discovered.
But, annually, no actual fixes are completed. Suppose that feels like a racket to you; it ought to as a result of it’s.
The politicians who declare yr after yr that this time they are going to do one thing about it proceed to bend the knee to the protection contractors, protection lobbyists, and army brass vying for high board positions in these organizations.
At the very least 47 members of Congress and their spouses maintain as much as $6.7 million value of inventory in firms which are among the many high 100 protection contractors pic.twitter.com/vJ6jH0lMh6
— RootsAction (@Roots_Action) August 24, 2021
Simply check out the inventory buying and selling that occurs inside Congress and the flip in wartime rhetoric. Struggle is nice for enterprise for the protection machine, the contractors and lobbyists who revenue off of it, and the legislators who get reelected off of it.
The DOD failed once more, and simply as normal, no one cares.
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