$8.5 trillion spent by Pentagon with no audit

"Corruptus in Extremis"

So much money & no one is watching

• It does not matter which moronic party controls Congress or the White House.  Both parties have worked together and voted to spend nearly $9 Trillion (with a T) of military spending with not one single audit since 1996.
• After all, an audit and honest accounting of tax dollars might slow down the wholesale theft of cash that weakens our defense efforts.

Pentagon fraud means the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer dollars sent off by Congress since 1996 has not been audited
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1035184/pentagon-fraud-revealed/#V7LMVTs3BsW2mjVv.99

All told, Pentagon fraud means the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer dollars sent off by Congress since 1996 has not been audited, with
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/1035184/pentagon-fraud-revealed/#V7LMVTs3BsW2mjVv.99

(Reuters)  -  Because of its persistent inability to tally its accounts, the Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not complied with a law that requires annual audits of all government departments. That means that the $8.5 trillion in taxpayer money doled out by Congress to the Pentagon since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited, has never been accounted for.

That sum exceeds the value of China's economic output last year.

At the DFAS offices that handle accounting for the Army, Navy, Air Force and other defense agencies, fudging the accounts with false entries is standard operating procedure, Reuters has found.
 And plugging isn't confined to DFAS (pronounced DEE-fass). Former military service officials say record-keeping at the operational level throughout the services is rife with made-up numbers to cover lost or missing information.

A review of multiple reports from oversight agencies in recent years shows that the Pentagon also has systematically ignored warnings about its accounting practices. "These types of adjustments, made without supporting documentation … can mask much larger problems in the original accounting data," the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said in a December 2011 report.

Plugs also are symptomatic of one very large problem: the Pentagon's chronic failure to keep track of its money - how much it has, how much it pays out and how much is wasted or stolen.

In its investigation, Reuters has found that the Pentagon is largely incapable of keeping track of its vast stores of weapons, ammunition and other supplies; thus it continues to spend money on new supplies it doesn't need and on storing others long out of date.

It has amassed a backlog of more than half a trillion dollars in unaudited contracts with outside vendors; how much of that money paid for actual goods and services delivered isn't known. And it repeatedly falls prey to fraud and theft that can go undiscovered for years, often eventually detected by external law enforcement agencies.


For the full article go to Reuters News.

USS Gerald Ford - $13 Billion in Scrap Metal
Proper audits might stop the flow of cold hard cash into insane boondoggle spending projects.  For example, the price tag for the USS Gerald Ford is now at $13 billion, it is 22% over budget with three more years to go before it is finished.
.
To compare, the navy of India just took delivery of  INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier for a cost of $2.35 billion.

See our article - USS Gerald Ford - $13 Billion in Scrap Metal

"We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. .
.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. .
.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
.
General Dwight Eisenhower
President of the United States
Republican