In the real world, those that don’t do their jobs correctly are held accountable.
The same doesn’t apply to those that work for the federal government. There have been a countless number of examples of completely ridiculous government waste and fiscal incompetence through the years, but there has been little in the way of accountability for that.
Another example has recently come to light, and this may just be the most outrageous one yet.
Politico has the scoop.
One of the Pentagon’s largest agencies can’t account for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of spending, a leading accounting firm says in an internal audit obtained by POLITICO that arrives just as President Donald Trump is proposing a boost in the military budget.
Ernst & Young found that the Defense Logistics Agency failed to properly document more than $800 million in construction projects, just one of a series of examples where it lacks a paper trail for millions of dollars in property and equipment.
Across the board, its financial management is so weak that its leaders and oversight bodies have no reliable way to track the huge sums it’s responsible for, the firm warned in its initial audit of the massive Pentagon purchasing agent.
Allow that to sink in for a moment. The DLA is unable to provide crystal clear answers on how more than $800 million dollars was allocated.
If something this outrageous took place in the private sector, it would be a scandal of monumental proportions that would undoubtedly lead to indictments.
In the nation’s capital, it’s just business as usual.
The audit raises new questions about whether the Defense Department can responsibly manage its $700 billion annual budget — let alone the additional billions that Trump plans to propose this month.
The department has never undergone a full audit despite a congressional mandate — and to some lawmakers, the messy state of the Defense Logistics Agency’s books indicates one may never even be possible.
“If you can’t follow the money, you aren’t going to be able to do an audit,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and senior member of the Budget and Finance committees, who has pushed successive administrations to clean up the Pentagon’s notoriously wasteful and disorganized accounting system.
By this point in time, it should be crystal clear to anyone that hasn’t overdosed on liberal-flavored Kool-Aid that President Donald Trump was right on the money about the swamp that is the nation’s capital.
That said, it’s been downright alarming to continually see how bad things really are.
This is just the latest sign of that. We’ll hold out hope that those responsible for this outrageous carelessness are held accountable.
Source: Politico
