Test Your Knowledge: Audits and the Pentagon

Jan 2, 2012

Question: In the last 20 years, how many times has the Pentagon been successfully audited?

a) 10
b) 5
c) 2
d) 0

---

Answer:

0. As Defense Industry Daily noted in 2009, “It’s not that the US Department of Defense fails audits.  The problem is more fundamental: it is not currently possible to audit it, and any comprehensive audit would be a first-ever event in modern times.” The Pentagon spent 39 cents of every income tax dollar you paid in 2011. It should be required to account for that money like every other government agency.

Last year, Senator Tom Coburn (OK) wrote a letter to the Joint Chiefs of Staff urging the Pentagon to comply with the law regarding auditable financial statements. Read more.  

Take action to ensure that Congress doesn't roll back cuts that would make for a smaller, more accountable Pentagon budget.