By Adam Andrzejewski for RealClearInvestigations
Topline: On Sept. 10, 2001, then-Protection Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld promised to finish what he known as “a matter of life and dying” — billions of {dollars} of wasteful spending on the Pentagon, and an unaccounted for $2.3 trillion.
Rumsfeld’s battle was short-lived. By the following day, on 9/11, the Division of Protection had greater issues to fret about than wasteful spending.
So, what turned of Rumsfeld’s declaration of monetary battle?
Key details: In a press convention on Sept. 10, Rumsfeld admitted that due to outdated know-how and flawed bookkeeping, Pentagon accountants had misplaced observe of $2.3 trillion in taxpayer cash. That was virtually 1 / 4 of america’ GDP on the time.
The funds had been spent, however nobody may work out what they’d been used for. This might have been an enormous nationwide story, if not for the occasions of the following day.
Rumsfeld likened Pentagon bureaucratic processes to the Soviet Union when it comes to the menace they posed to the U.S. He additionally famous that the DoD employed extra employees than vital and spent thousands and thousands of {dollars} to coach staffers who would solely stick round for just a few years.
Rumsfeld vowed to revolutionize Pentagon accounting, work with Congress to draft new laws, and created the Protection Enterprise Board to advise the DoD on monetary issues.
Background: Jim Minnery of the Protection Finance and Accounting Service informed CBS Information in 2002 that few Pentagon workers appeared to care about multi-million greenback transactions lacking from inner steadiness sheets. Officers would merely physician statements to erase the lacking cash, based on Minnery.
“They need to cowl it up,” Minnery stated. “That’s the place the corruption is available in. They need to cowl up the truth that they will’t do the job.
Even the Pentagon’s makes an attempt to repair its accounting ended up losing cash. Rolling Stone reported in 2019 that two totally different Pentagon accounting initiatives had been scrapped. Every price over $1 billion and took over seven years to arrange, but have been by no means even applied.
In 2023, the Pentagon’s accounting programs failed an inner audit for the sixth yr in a row. That prompted Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to introduce the Audit the Pentagon Act of 2023, which might power the DoD to forfeit a part of its price range if it couldn’t move one other audit.
Auditors at OpenTheBooks.com discovered that the Pentagon spent greater than $56 billion on payroll in 2022. There have been 24 workers who took residence salaries of no less than $300,000.
Important quote: “From shopping for $14,000 rest room seats to shedding observe of warehouses filled with spare elements, the Division of Protection has been tormented by wasteful spending for many years. Each greenback the Pentagon squanders is a greenback not used to help service members, bolster nationwide safety or strengthen navy readiness,”Grassley stated. “The Division of Protection ought to have to satisfy the identical annual auditing requirements as each different company.”
Abstract: The DoD has had a identified finance situation for many years regardless of being one of many authorities’s most costly departments. The troubles Rumsfeld introduced up in 2001 have but to be eradicated.
The #WasteOfTheDay is delivered to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
Reprinted with permission from RealClearWire.
