A New Audit Reveals that the Department of Defense Logistics Agency Cannot Account for over $800 in Expenses

Recent audit conducted by Ernst & Young reveals that the Department of Defense Logistics Agency failed to properly document over $800 million in expenses, according to Politico.

The Defense Logistics Agency is responsible for processing roughly 100,000 orders per day on behalf of the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, in addition to a number of other smaller federal agencies. It deals with some $40 billion worth or projects each year. This means that some 2 percent of the Agency’s projects are unaccounted for, in that they lack a “paper trail”.







The Washington Free Beacon breaks the numbers down:

Misstatements in the agency’s records totaled $465 million for construction projects completed by the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies. Another $384 million worth of projects listed as “in progress” either didn’t have proper documentation or any at all.

In another instance, the DLA could not find records for $100 million worth of agency computer assets.

This is worrying, as this is the first of a number of official audits being undertaken by the Department of Defense: there is room for this number to swell to massive proportions. And indeed, it probably will.

Consider that according to the Federation of American Scientists, America has spent $250 million every day since 2001 on foreign wars—there is ample room to hide incompetence and malfeasance in the DoD.

Likewise, in his book Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World, author David Vine reveals that America spends over $150 billion every year defending its allies by way of foreign garrisons. One can only speculate of the graft that goes on in these semi-private fiefdoms:

I say this not to disparage the US military, but to point out the rather obvious fact that many of the people in positions of control are poor managers of the public purse.

More transparency is needed, and this audit is a good first step.