The Pentagon lost track of $220 billion in military-owned gear provided to military contractors. The total is probably higher than that.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) slammed the Pentagon for its handling of “government-furnished property.” It was passed off to contractors with little oversight.
This has gone on since 1981, and no one bothered to improve it since. The bigger government gets, the more inefficient and corrupt it gets.
The GAO can’t even give an opinion on its financial statements since the accounting and reporting is so bad.
The Pentagon failed its fifth audit in a row in November since formally beginning the practice in 2018, DefenseNews reported. Contractors could not prove expenditures for 61% of the Pentagon’s $3.5 trillion in assets; a total of $7.2 trillion in assets and liabilities for 2022 included high-value weapons and equipment, 2.9 million personnel and 643,900 physical assets, according to the outlet, according to Military.com.
Assets include those provided for use to contractors, according to GAO.
A bipartisan group of senators, including included Chuck Grassley (R–Iowa), Mike Lee (R–Utah), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D–Ore.), proposed a possible solution last year. Their bill would automatically cut 1 percent from the budget of any part of the Pentagon that fails an annual audit. If that had passed, 20 of the Pentagon’s 27 agencies would have faced budget cuts this year.
If they don’t provide oversight, maybe some pressure will help shape them up.
This is what Big Government does with our money, but at least we have Donald Trump’s inconsequential tax returns.
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