By Rebekah Chiasson | Assistant Editor
The Defense Department had to present their audit this June and could not account for $6.5 trillion. Investigators, including Reuters who first released the report, believe the missing money is due to “unreliable” data and “fudged” numbers.
The Defense Department’s annual budget is roughly $600 billion, but according to their audit report, “The Defense Finance and Accounting Service Indianapolis (DFAS Indianapolis) did not adequately support $2.8 trillion in third quarter adjustments and $6.5 trillion in yearend adjustments.” The DFAS managed to double their already enormous loss in the last quarter of the fiscal year. In addition to the trillions lost, more than 16,000 files “vanished” from the DFAS’s computer system because of “a flaw in the computing software,” according to the report.
The Defense Department, located in the Pentagon, is responsible for wars, healthcare, personnel, housing, equipment, and procurements appointed to them by Congress. “Though there are a high number of adjustments, we believe the financial statement information is more accurate than implied in this report,” said Dov Schwartz, an Army spokesman. Schwartz added that Army is still reviewing the report.
The Pentagon, who apparently has a reputation for bad accounting practices, has never completed an audit before June of this year. In 1996, all federal agencies were ordered by the court of law to perform routine financial audits. However, the Pentagon has failed to complete an audit within the last 20 years. Scott Paltrow’s 2013 Reuters investigation revealed the Department of Defense commonly “fudges” or misrepresents their financial accounting numbers.
The Department of Defense’s errors are almost 1000 times higher than last year’s $7 billion in financial errors. If the Defense Department stuck to their budget, the “missing” 6.5 trillion taxpayer dollars could have paid for over one-fourth of the national debt, or pay off the student loan debt roughly five times over.
Capitol Hill Lawmakers are trying to keep the Pentagon accountable by imposing penalties if the Pentagon cannot complete a legally mandated full audit scheduled to happen September 30, 2017.
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