U.S. Army Fudged “Trillions” to Give “Illusion” of Balanced Budget, Says Audit

By Micah J. Fleck

Well, who would have thought? A government entity that can’t manage money. Only this time, it lied about this fact for years and only got found out in a recent audit.

According to Reuters:

The new report focused on the Army’s General Fund, the bigger of its two main accounts, with assets of $282.6 billion in 2015. The Army lost or didn’t keep required data, and much of the data it had was inaccurate, the IG said.

“Where is the money going? Nobody knows,” said Franklin Spinney, a retired military analyst for the Pentagon and critic of Defense Department planning.

The significance of the accounting problem goes beyond mere concern for balancing books, Spinney said. Both presidential candidates have called for increasing defense spending amid current global tension.

An accurate accounting could reveal deeper problems in how the Defense Department spends its money. Its 2016 budget is $573 billion, more than half of the annual budget appropriated by Congress.

The Army account’s errors will likely carry consequences for the entire Defense Department.

Congress set a September 30, 2017 deadline for the department to be prepared to undergo an audit. The Army accounting problems raise doubts about whether it can meet the deadline – a black mark for Defense, as every other federal agency undergoes an audit annually.

Not the best of news for the Defense budget… But possible good news for those of us who have long wanted to see the legs cut out from under it. Fingers crossed in 2017.