Pentagon Fails Its First Ever Audit, Official Says | Top News

By Idrees Ali and Mike Stone

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon has failed to get it right, it said: "The Pentagon has failed to get it right.

Results of the inspection – conducted by some 1,200 auditors and examining financial accounting on a wide range of spending on weapons, weapons and property – were expected to be completed later in the day.

"We failed the audit, but we never expected to pass it," Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan told reporters, adding that the findings showed the need for greater discipline in financial matters within the Pentagon.

"It was an audit on a $ 2.7 trillion dollar organization, so the fact that we did the audit is substantial," Shanahan added.

The U.S. defense budget for the 2018 fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30 was about $ 700 billion. The Pentagon is a large agency with multiple branches of the military, costly weapons systems, large personal needs, local and numerous local forces.

Shanahan said areas of the Pentagon must improve upon compliance with the results of compliance with cybersecurity policies and improving inventory accuracy. In a briefing with reporters, he did not provide a figure of detail how much money was unaccounted for in the audit.

It was unclear what consequences there would be after the audit, but Shanahan said the focus would be on fixing the issues.

"We need to develop the findings and actually put corrective actions in place," Shanahan said.

"Some of the compliance issues are irritating to me." The point of the audit is better discipline in our compliance with our management systems and procedures, "Shanahan added.

A 1990 federal law mandated that U.S. government agencies be audited, but the Pentagon had not had a comprehensive audit until December.

Defense officials and experts have said that it is possible that the Pentagon is able to fix its accounts and errors and pass an audit.

"To clarify, the audit is not a 'pass-fail' process." US Army Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Buccino, at Pentagon spokesman, said in an E-mail.

"We did not receive any more information from 'disclaimer' in multiple areas," Buccino added.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Mike Stone, Editing by Will Dunham)

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