Pentagon Starting First-ever Financial Audit

[Swordsmyth]

Department of Defense (DOD) officials announced Friday that the agency would undergo the first full-scale audit in its history.
Defense Department Comptroller David Norquist said at a press conference that the audit would begin this month.
“It is important that the Congress and the American people have confidence in DOD’s management of every taxpayer dollar,” Norquist said.
The massive undertaking will examine every aspect of the Defense Department, from personnel and supplies to bases and weapons. At least 2,400 auditors will be tasked with spreading out across the department to examine the Pentagon’s estimated $2.4 trillion in assets.

More at: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/36...inancial-audit

[Galileo Galilei]

Trump is a llibertarian. I told you so.

[devil21]

Trump is a llibertarian. I told you so.

Naaa, it has nothing to do with Trump specifically. Dollar's global reserve status is done, so the Fed can't print to infinity any more. Now the numbers actually matter. Auditing and closing out the accounting books is a required step when any corporation is dissolved.

eta: tptb want you to think it's cuz Trump. Trump doesn't control anything. He's a PR guy, nothing more.

[phill4paul]

Well, I know where some of the money will go. To 2400 government contractors.

[Galileo Galilei]

Naaa, it has nothing to do with Trump specifically. Dollar's global reserve status is done, so the Fed can't print to infinity any more. Now the numbers actually matter. Auditing and closing out the accounting books is a required step when any corporation is dissolved.

Actually, the US is in better shape financially than a year ago.

[r3volution 3.0]

A genuine audit of the DoD (or of the Fed, for that matter), as opposed to a PR farce audit, will require a POTUS or a Congress that actually has a problem with our current foreign and military policy (or monetary policy in the case of the Fed) to oversee it. So, with the war party controlling both the White House and Congress, something tells me nobody finds nuttin.

[devil21]

Actually, the US is in better shape financially than a year ago.

Not sure what you mean. My post refers to the fact that the federal government is a bankrupt corporation and what we're seeing going on right now, with things like a never-happened-before DoD audit, huge revamp of the tax code, etc are the very end stages of the dissolution/discharge of a bankrupt corporation. A bankruptcy that was started in 1930 and has persisted since. If you look back at history with this in mind, it all makes sense. Why the "money" is debt, why every person born was securitized into collateral via the birth registration process, why none cared about deficits or budgets (the "money" had no value in the first place, only the labor and hard assets it extracted had value, hence "income taxes"), etc.

[enhanced_deficit]

What is with Trump regime and neverending transparency?

There is first ever audit of Pent now. Recently there were first audits of Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Al Franken, Jon Conyers, Geraldo, Matt Laurer and list goes on and on.

[Occam's Banana]

“It is important that the Congress and the American people have confidence in DOD’s management of every taxpayer dollar,” Norquist said.

I'm reminded of an old saying: "You find what you look for" ...

There will be regular full-scale audits, you say?

FTA (emphasis added): http://thehill.com/policy/defense/36...inancial-audit

Norquist also spoke Friday about the danger posed by the looming possibility of a government shutdown. [...]

"I cannot emphasize too much how destructive a shutdown is," Norquist said Friday. "We've talked before about the importance of maintenance on weapons systems and others, but if it's not an excepted activity, there'll be work stoppage on many of those maintenance functions."

"In the administration's budget, we requested additional money for munitions, and so we would like to increase the production of some of those munitions," he added.

*sniff*sniff* What's that smell ... ?

... ahhh, yes, I think I recognize it now ...

... it's that ink they use on rubber stamps ...

[euphemia]

I'm interested to see how this goes.

[timosman]

I'm interested to see how this goes.

Ooops, Francis, do you have that receipt from my barber for $20B? No? Sorry, we don't have it.

[euphemia]

This is why I rarely read what you write. I

think an audit would be very interesting. Trump has surrounded himself with a lot of military folks. He gave the military a budget increase. I wonder why he is ordering this audit and what he expects to see. Trump is a numbers guy, and it just seems interesting.

The problem here is that people keep putting Trump into a politcian box. He's not a politician. He wrote a book explaining exactly how he rolls at work, and somehow people ignore than and keep trying to filter through the political lens.

[devil21]

This is why I rarely read what you write. I

think an audit would be very interesting. Trump has surrounded himself with a lot of military folks. He gave the military a budget increase. I wonder why he is ordering this audit and what he expects to see. Trump is a numbers guy, and it just seems interesting.

The problem here is that people keep putting Trump into a politcian box. He's not a politician. He wrote a book explaining exactly how he rolls at work, and somehow people ignore than and keep trying to filter through the political lens.

No, you're right, he's not a politician. What he is, is a businessman that has public relations experience while unwinding bankrupt corporations. Just like my posts above explain. He's been the front man for at least 4 bankrupted legal entities.

[shakey1]

The massive undertaking will examine every aspect of the Defense Department, from personnel and supplies to bases and weapons.

Does that include their 'black budget' funding?

[oyarde]

Does that include their 'black budget' funding?

No , that money is not there if they are doing it right .

[Firestarter]

Of course, we don’t need to check (empty) promises to increase “confidence in DoD's management”, and all celebrate this great news...

And it’s a very good sign that the 2015 report that showed that the accountancy practices of the DoD is something of a joke, was removed from the internet: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...Has-Gone/page2

[Origanalist]

This will be awesome, just like police departments investigating themselves.

[Occam's Banana]

Pentagon Audit - Just Another Cover-Up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2okYz9dDc4

Don't get too excited about a recent report that the Pentagon is going to finally undergo an audit to see where the trillions of missing dollars have gone. Beltway pundits -- including WaPo's Robert Samuelson in an article over the weekend -- are still screaming for more spending!

[Origanalist]

Pentagon Audit - Just Another Cover-Up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2okYz9dDc4

Why are you posting that old kook?

[Occam's Banana]

Why are you posting that old kook?

People should know about what wacko-birds like this guy are saying. (How can 'Murrica defend against enemies and traitors if we don't know what they're thinking?)

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Official Truth^TM by the U.S. Government."

Or something like that ...

[Origanalist]

People should know about what wacko-birds like this guy are saying. (How can 'Murrica defend against enemies and traitors if we don't know what they're thinking?)

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Official Truth^TM by the U.S. Government."

Or something like that ...

Mmm, mind loins.....that's better than brain worms.

[timosman]

Why are you posting that old kook?

Sarcasm?

[Keith and stuff]

Department of Defense (DOD) officials announced Friday that the agency would undergo the first full-scale audit in its history.

Great news. Show us the books

[Raginfridus]

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...Has-Gone/page2

Ask Tel Aviv Jerusalem.

[Swordsmyth]

And in a preview of what is to come, Norquist told the House Armed Services Committee that an initial Army audit found 39 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter ($830,700,000) were not adequately recorded in the property system. "The Air Force identified 478 structures and buildings at 12 installations that were not in its real property system,” he added. In other words these helicopters were simply "missing" on the books.




More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...r-audit-begins

[Swordsmyth]

The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has reportedly "lost track" of hundreds of millions of dollars it spent, said Ernst & Young, the accounting firm conducting the first-ever Pentagon audit, according to Politico.
E&Y discovered that DLA "failed to properly document more than $800 million in construction projects," said Politico, which also reported this is just one of the many instances where millions of dollars went missing as the accountability system inside the Pentagon is broken. Worse, according to Politico, the first-ever audit, covering the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2016, signals complete incompetence about how the Pentagon handles its $700 billion annual budget.
While these comments from Ernst & Young are mindnumbing, the Trump administration is set to ask Congress for $716 billion for defense spending for fiscal 2019, a 7% increase over the 2018 Budget. Budget analysts have sounded warnings this would be a significant surge in spending for the Pentagon at a time when the organization can barely keep track of its current expenditures.
“If you can’t follow the money, you aren’t going to be able to do an audit,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and senior member of the Budget and Finance committees, who has suggested to past administrations that hemorrhaging of wasteful spending at the Pentagon must stop.

Army Lt. Gen. Darrell Williams, the agency’s director, wrote in response to Ernst & Young’s bombshell findings that the audit has “provided us with a valuable independent view of our current financial operations.”
“We are committed to resolving the material weaknesses and strengthening internal controls around DLA’s operations,” he said, according to Politico.
The DLA is a $40 billion-a-year logistics agency within the Pentagon with some 25,000 employees and processes about 100,000 orders a day, said Politico.
Ernst & Young’s auditors found significant accounting errors in DLA’s process of tracking expenditures. There are minimal accounting records of where the money is going said the report. This does not bode well for accountability at the Pentagon, which has combined assets of $2.2 trillion.The Politico describes one section of the audit where Ernst & Young’s auditors found misstatements for some $465 million in construction projects. Another section described that there was very little documentation for another $384 million worth of spending.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...llion-spending

[timosman]

The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has reportedly "lost track" of hundreds of millions of dollars it spent, said Ernst & Young, the accounting firm conducting the first-ever Pentagon audit, according to Politico.
E&Y discovered that DLA "failed to properly document more than $800 million in construction projects," said Politico, which also reported this is just one of the many instances where millions of dollars went missing as the accountability system inside the Pentagon is broken. Worse, according to Politico, the first-ever audit, covering the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2016, signals complete incompetence about how the Pentagon handles its $700 billion annual budget.
While these comments from Ernst & Young are mindnumbing, the Trump administration is set to ask Congress for $716 billion for defense spending for fiscal 2019, a 7% increase over the 2018 Budget. Budget analysts have sounded warnings this would be a significant surge in spending for the Pentagon at a time when the organization can barely keep track of its current expenditures.
“If you can’t follow the money, you aren’t going to be able to do an audit,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and senior member of the Budget and Finance committees, who has suggested to past administrations that hemorrhaging of wasteful spending at the Pentagon must stop.

Army Lt. Gen. Darrell Williams, the agency’s director, wrote in response to Ernst & Young’s bombshell findings that the audit has “provided us with a valuable independent view of our current financial operations.”
“We are committed to resolving the material weaknesses and strengthening internal controls around DLA’s operations,” he said, according to Politico.
The DLA is a $40 billion-a-year logistics agency within the Pentagon with some 25,000 employees and processes about 100,000 orders a day, said Politico.
Ernst & Young’s auditors found significant accounting errors in DLA’s process of tracking expenditures. There are minimal accounting records of where the money is going said the report. This does not bode well for accountability at the Pentagon, which has combined assets of $2.2 trillion.The Politico describes one section of the audit where Ernst & Young’s auditors found misstatements for some $465 million in construction projects. Another section described that there was very little documentation for another $384 million worth of spending.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...llion-spending

We promise we won't do it again. Can we have cash now? My dealer is waiting.