Rogue Pentagon Bombs Yet ANOTHER Consecutive Audit

โ€œThe whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.โ€
-H.L. Mencken

That a government agency given almost a trillion dollars every year in public money could fail every audit it undergoes for nearly a decade proves the iron political law: one can get away with any amount of abuse or malfeasance if one transgresses in the name of โ€œnational security.โ€

Where are the conservative deficit hawks โ€” the โ€œhow are we going to pay for thatโ€ people?

All the โ€œdefenseโ€ machine has to do, in the rare event it meets any criticism or skepticism, is splash a scary brown man with a beard and a scimitar ranting about jihad in some Pakistani cave across every corporate media outlet, and suddenly all the criticsโ€™ concerns vanish into thin air.

Related:ย How Long Until Retiring Gen. Mark Milley Is on the Board of Raytheon or Boeing?

Viaย The Hillย (emphasis added):

โ€œThe Pentagon on Friday failed its seventh audit in a row, with the nationโ€™s largest government agency still unable to fully account for its more than $824 billion budget, though officials stress they are making good progress toward a clean audit in 2028.

The Department of Defense technically earned a disclaimer of opinion, meaning it failed to provide sufficient information to auditors to form an accurate opinion.

The goal is to earn an unmodified audit opinion, or a clean audit that says the financial statements are accurate. A qualified opinion says there are omissions and concerns but the finances are generally reliable.โ€

Let not your heart be troubled, though; some paper-pusher called Michael McCord is really bullish on the Pentagon not failing every audit from now until eternity.

Granted, they probably wonโ€™t pass next yearโ€™s either, or the next, but someday, in theory, the Pentagon will probably get through an audit.

Because, McCord explains, โ€œmomentum.โ€

Continuing:

โ€œMichael McCord, under secretary of Defense comptroller and chief financial officer, said that despite the disclaimer of opinion, which he expected, the Defense Department โ€œhas turned a corner in its understanding of the depth and breadth of its challenges.โ€

โ€œMomentum is on our side, and throughout the Department there is strong commitment โ€” and belief in our ability โ€” to achieve an unmodified audit opinion,โ€ he said in a statement.

The Defense Departmentโ€™s report card as a whole is made up of 28 entities operating under the Pentagon that conducted independent audits.

Of those, nine received an unmodified audit opinion, one received a qualified opinion, 15 received disclaimers and three opinions remain pending. The Pentagon expects the final number of clean or qualified audits to be roughly around what it was last year.โ€

Related:ย Pentagon Official Confronted Over Military’s 5 Consecutive Failed Audits

Elon Musk, beneficiary of extreme government largesse, has pledged to instill efficiency and accountability in government.

Will he follow through when heโ€™s dealing with a department in the DoD that he has active financial dealings with?

Or is this all more of an internet meme thing?

Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.

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Ben Bartee
Ben Barteehttps://armageddonprose.substack.com/
BEWARE!!! Ben Bartee never minces words, so read at your own risk. Ben is a Bangkok-based American journalist, grant writer, political essayist, researcher, travel blogger, and amateur philosopher -- with opposable thumbs. He is the author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile.

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