Donald Trump, the President-elect, announced that Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX and former entrepreneur and former Republican presidential nominee Vivek Ramaswamy will be leading his newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump stated at the time that:
The two Americans are essential to my Administration’s efforts to dismantle the Government Bureaucracy and cut excess regulations. They will also help to reduce wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies.
If there’s a better example of the urgent need for the Department of Government Efficiency — headed by Musk and Ramaswamy, no less — than the one that follows the below link, I’m unaware of what it is.
On Friday, it was reported that the Pentagon, America’s largest government organization, had failed its seventh audit. It is still unable fully to account for its budget of more than $824 Billion. Pentagon officials assured that there is no need to worry, as they are making “good progress” towards a clean audit by 2028.
What is the year 2008? I have a feeling that Elon and Vivek don’t think more than four years will be enough.
Reports claim that the Department of Defense, led by Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is often under fire, technically earned a disclaimer of opinions, which means it did not provide auditors with enough information to form a correct opinion.
First question: Why? I’ll venture a guess that the answer is because sufficient information was nowhere to be found, which raises the second question: Why not?
A clean audit is the goal. It means that an audit has found financial statements to be accurate.
We’re talking more than 824 trillion dollars in taxpayer money. Musk and Ramaswamy are likely to be more concerned than just accurate financials. Of course, this is important, but the Pentagon budget and reducing wasteful spending and inefficiency will take precedence. (Pun intended)
Michael McCord, Chief Financial Officer and Comptroller to the Under Secretary of Defense said in a press release that the Defense Department has “turned a corner” in understanding the breadth and depth of its challenges.
It’s the last time I mention Elon or Vivek in this article, but “turning the corners” probably isn’t enough either, especially for another four more years.
McCord continued:
We are on the right track and there is a strong belief that we can achieve a non-modified audit opinion.
McCord told reporters at a briefing on Friday:
As I said, I don’t say that we failed. We have about half of the clean opinions. We have about half of them that aren’t clean. If someone has a report that is only half good and half bad, then I’m not sure that you would call that student or that report card a fail. We still have a long way to go, but I believe we are making progress.
Hmm. Bud, we’re not talking here about a report card. We’re discussing close to a billion dollars, and the security and defense of the United States of America.
In fact, since 2018, when the Pentagon was legally required to perform audits, it has never been able to pass one.
As I mentioned earlier, without naming names, I have the feeling that the Defense Department will be held accountable for its expenditures as well as its initiatives before 2028.
For now, I’m going to leave it as is.
