U.S. Army fudged its accounts by trillions of dollars, auditor finds - Polidicks

[quote]The United States Army’s finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced. The Defense Department’s Inspector General, in a June report, said the Army made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year. Yet the Army lacked receipts and invoices to support those numbers or simply made them up. As a result, the Army’s financial statements for 2015 were “materially misstated,” the report concluded. The “forced” adjustments rendered the statements useless because “DoD and Army managers could not rely on the data in their accounting systems when making management and resource decisions.” Disclosure of the Army’s manipulation of numbers is the latest example of the severe accounting problems plaguing the Defense Department for decades. The report affirms a 2013 Reuters series revealing how the Defense Department falsified accounting on a large scale as it scrambled to close its books. As a result, there has been no way to know how the Defense Department – far and away the biggest chunk of Congress’ annual budget – spends the public’s money. 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.[/quote] [url]http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-audit-army-idUSKCN10U1IG[/url]

Imagine what $6.5 trillion a year could do if it was spent on education.

And infrastructure.

So the US Army literally cannot account for an amount of money which is entirely incomprehensible to the average individual? That isn't concerning at all.

And NASA

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;50915954]Imagine what $6.5 trillion a year could do if it was spent on education.[/QUOTE] Probably something along the lines of Russian dominion over all of Europe, or at the very least a lack of any actual international laws, and any real way to carry those laws out if necessary.

And industry

[QUOTE=Wafflemonstr;50916116]Probably something along the lines of Russian dominion over all of Europe, or at the very least a lack of any actual international laws, and any real way to carry those laws out if necessary.[/QUOTE] But the US Army can't actually tell you what it spent that money on, so you can't prove that. And this is the problem.

Remember that the DOD's computer systems are [I]beyond[/I] dated.

AUDIT [HIGHLIGHT]A U D I T[/HIGHLIGHT]

[QUOTE=Code3Response;50916256]Remember that the DOD's computer systems are [I]beyond[/I] dated.[/QUOTE] I mean I use Windows 10 at work so

And basically anything BUT lining peoples pockets...

[QUOTE=InvaderNouga;50916272]I mean I use Windows 10 at work so[/QUOTE] Nah I mean their accounting and payroll stuff. Politico ran a huge story on it last year I believe.

reminder that out of the entire dod budget, the army gets the biggest chunk. america's brightest, folks.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;50915954]Imagine what $6.5 trillion a year could do if it was spent on education.[/QUOTE] Or a wall

[QUOTE=ilikecorn;50916312]Imagine if the rest of the world didn't look to the US to essentially be their military; we could actually afford to reduce our spending.[/QUOTE] yeah I doubt this is related to that at all

[QUOTE=ilikecorn;50916312]Imagine if the rest of the world didn't look to the US to essentially be their military; we could actually afford to reduce our spending.[/QUOTE] This isn't about reducing spending. This is about knowing what you're spending it on. You can't prove that this wasn't wasted. Nobody can. [B]That's why it's a problem.[/B]

Honestly, this doesn't surprise me. I've seen too many friends' paychecks get fucked up to trust the Army to competently handle money.

[QUOTE=ilikecorn;50916388]It's a lot easier to account for expenditures when they're smaller. One of the many reasons this happened is because of the "gotta outspend the commies" mindset. Another is the simple fact that our aquisition system is so bullshit that it'd make perfect sense that the cash poofed into some defense contractors pockets...[/QUOTE] I would be far more inclined to blame the military industrial complex, more so than anything else. Eisenhower warned against it, and that warning fell on deaf ears more than 50 years ago and now this is the result. We can't even track what's being spent.

[QUOTE=ilikecorn;50916312]Imagine if the rest of the world didn't look to the US to essentially be their military; we could actually afford to reduce our spending.[/QUOTE] Except they don't though. They spend a lot less than they should be doing but that's only because there's no incentive TO spend what's needed because the US rocks up with it's huge pay-checks and massive logistical capability and gladly says it will do it all for a base or two.

[QUOTE=Psychokitten;50916357]Honestly, this doesn't surprise me. I've seen too many friends' paychecks get fucked up to trust the Army to competently handle money.[/QUOTE] I had a buddy be told he wasn't in the Army anymore because they had somehow lost his files. Or another friend who managed to sign out for equipment the supply room didn't even have to begin with and they tried to charge him for losing non-existent equipment.

[quote]As a result, there has been no way to know how the Defense Department – far and away the biggest chunk of Congress’ annual budget – spends the public’s money.[/quote] they've got to love this. easy to push money towards black projects when nobody knows where the money is going in the first place.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;50915954]Imagine what $6.5 trillion a year could do if it was spent on education.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=~Kiwi~v2;50915964]And medical.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=greasemunky;50915974]And infrastructure.[/QUOTE] Well [I]technically[/I] it did, I mean the army does have these things.

get the irs involved

Imagine if fifteen per-fucking-cent of your salary just vanished every year. That is the relationship between the federal government and the DoD.

[QUOTE=Chonch;50916688]Imagine if fifteen per-fucking-cent of your salary just vanished every year. That is the relationship between the federal government and the DoD.[/QUOTE] Bad comparison because the federal government has ways to prevent this, they just haven't.

[QUOTE=Ninja Gnome;50916533]they've got to love this. easy to push money towards black projects when nobody knows where the money is going in the first place.[/QUOTE] Maybe we just have 6.5T/yr worth of black projects going on :tinfoil: [editline]19th August 2016[/editline] That tunnel network that can transport two B-52's side by side and the secret war with the Grey aliens isn't going to fund itself.

[QUOTE=OvB;50916797]Maybe we just have 6.5T/yr worth of black projects going on :tinfoil: [editline]19th August 2016[/editline] That tunnel network that can transport two B-52's side by side and the secret war with the Grey aliens isn't going to fund itself.[/QUOTE] the aurora project, being the f-35 of the black project world, takes probably 5T of that

Stupid, sensationalist title. [Quote] DoD auditor here. It's not that the Army doesn't know where the money went. They know exactly where (most) of the money went. It's really a matter of how much their internal project analyst's recorded as expenditures versus how much the external auditors accounted for - [/quote] [Quote] The next point that should be made is that there is "plugging" of numbers mostly for the fact of the intense volume of financial transactions within these organizations. Transaction sampling is done and the transactions that are not tested are "plugged" with estimates for ending project costs which span over varying government fiscal years[/quote] [url]https://m.reddit.com/r/news/comments/4yjj22/us_army_fudged_its_accounts_by_trillions_of/d6okave[/url]

[QUOTE=Thomo_UK;50916402]Except they don't though. They spend a lot less than they should be doing but that's only because there's no incentive TO spend what's needed because the US rocks up with it's huge pay-checks and massive logistical capability and gladly says it will do it all for a base or two.[/QUOTE] We were doing this 40 years ago, not so much anymore. Most missions that the UN/NATO endorses are US lead and run operations. Just like in Libya a few years ago, the UK and every other nation launched just a handful of cruise missiles and other long range weapons in the opening attacks; the US launched several hundred.