Grassley Statement on Department of Defense Audit Report

Statement

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa released the following statement regarding the results of the Department of Defense's full financial audit.

"The results of the Defense Department's audit are disappointing, but not surprising. For decades, I've pressed the department to fix its broken accounting systems, get its wasteful spending under control and produce a clean audit -- a task every federal agency except the Department of Defense has been able to accomplish.

"While it's commendable that the Defense Department has taken steps to identify specific areas in need of improvement, it's unacceptable that it has spent over $400 million on an audit it knew would come back flawed. The department has spent billions of taxpayer dollars over the years trying to fix its accounting systems with little or no success. Without an accounting system that can provide usable data, an audit is useless and a waste of resources. How is it possible that the Pentagon is able to develop the most advanced weapons in the world but can't produce a workable, reliable accounting system?

"I've been briefed on the results of the audit, but have requested additional follow up from the office of Chief Financial Officer Norquist to learn more details. I also want to ask specific questions about what changes the agency will make to solve the problems facing the Pentagon and how those changes will be implemented."

Grassley's extensive oversight work throughout his career has included a dogged pursuit for answers from the Pentagon over decades of wasteful spending and its inability to produce a clean financial audit. Grassley has also highlighted many specific examples of reckless spending by the Pentagon, including $14,000 toilet seat lids, $1,280 cups and a $43 million gas station in Afghanistan.

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