After years of preparation, the Department of Defense is making good on long-held promises of an agencywide financial audit \u2014 the first of its kind for the Pentagon, the sole federal agency that hasn\u2019t produced an audit despite a 1990 requirement to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DoD Comptroller David Norquist said the audit will begin this month. With \u201cmore than $2.4 trillion in assets, this financial statement audit is one of the largest ever undertaken in history,\u201d he said in a Dec. 7 press briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe DoD [Office of Inspector General] has hired independent public accounting firms to conduct audits of individual components. They will, then, combine that into a departmentwide consolidated audit that summarizes all the results and conclusions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While there are no guarantees the audit will come out clean \u2014 particularly in the first few years of the agencywide review \u2014 Norquist has emphasized that Pentagon officials must begin somewhere, and it must begin as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor seven years or more, the department has engaged in audit readiness, preparing for a full-scope audit without starting it. This approach has diminishing returns,\u201d Norquist said at his confirmation hearing over the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI recognize it will take time for the department to go from being audited to passing an audit. Everything you have heard about the size and the complexity of the department is true, and this legitimately makes any endeavor, including an audit, harder. But that is not a reason to delay the audit; that is a reason to begin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 1,200 auditors will help carry out the review. Beginning in 2018, audits will occur annually with reports issued on Nov. 15, Norquist said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is important that Congress and the American people have confidence in DoD\u2019s management of every taxpayer dollar,\u201d he said, noting that the audits are necessary to ensure financial data is accurate and to account for property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnnual audits also ensure visibility over the quantity and quality of the equipment and supplies our troops use.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite a 1990 requirement to do so, Department of Defense officials are only now launching a full audit seven years in the making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":40264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2887],"class_list":["post-19763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DSNCHS4KSFGLZJDVJXCLHO3ZZA","arc_canonical_url":"\/home\/2017\/12\/12\/dod-launches-long-awaited-audit\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n