Pentagon: No Successful Audits Until at Least 2027

After three straight years of failures, the Pentagon now says it doesn’t expect to figure out a proper audit of its assets until at least 2027. That’s an audit to cover an estimated $2.9 trillion in Defense Department assets.

The Pentagon attempted and failed its first audit in 2018. Officials said a failure was a foregone conclusion, and that they managed to finish the failure at all was an accomplishment. Having set the bar for success, they’ve managed to keep failing going forward.

This year’s failure cost $203 million, and officials said they managed to save $700 million, though Covid-19 complicated the matter substantially.

The Covid-19 problem prevented them from visiting a lot of Pentagon buildings, which was a problem for the audits, though an opportunity for officials opposed to the audit to keep them out of certain locations.