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cover of episode Why the Pentagon Fails Audits Year After Year After Year

Why the Pentagon Fails Audits Year After Year After Year

2025/4/19
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Joe Wiesenthal
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Julia Gledhill
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Julia Gledhill: 我认为，五角大楼审计失败的主要原因在于其庞大的规模和复杂的结构，以及其内部控制的薄弱环节。审计的目的是为了确保五角大楼能够有效地管理纳税人的资金，但由于其规模巨大，审计过程非常复杂，这使得审计人员难以获得必要的财务信息和数据。此外，五角大楼的财产和库存记录追踪也存在严重问题，这导致了大量的资金损失和资源浪费。例如，海军在财产记录中丢失了一个仓库，里面有价值1.26亿美元的备件。这只是冰山一角，五角大楼的财产和库存记录追踪问题普遍存在，这使得审计人员难以对五角大楼的财务状况做出准确的判断。 此外，国防承包商也对五角大楼的审计结果造成了影响。国防承包商控制着政府财产的追踪机制，即使政府要求提供信息，他们也会索要额外费用。这使得政府难以追踪其财产和库存，从而增加了审计的难度。 为了解决这些问题，我建议采取以下措施：首先，加强五角大楼的内部控制，提高其财务管理水平；其次，改进五角大楼的财产和库存记录追踪系统，确保其能够准确地追踪其财产和库存；第三，加强对国防承包商的监管，防止其利用其权力影响审计结果。 最后，我认为，控制核武器扩军支出也是非常重要的。例如，取消“哨兵”计划，这将节省大量的资金，并有助于缓和与其他核大国的紧张关系。 Joe Wiesenthal: 作为一名听众，我对五角大楼审计失败感到震惊。这表明，美国政府在管理其最大的支出项目之一方面存在严重问题。这不仅浪费了纳税人的钱，而且还可能对美国的国家安全造成威胁。我们需要对五角大楼的财务管理进行彻底的改革，以确保其能够有效地管理纳税人的资金。 Traci Alloway: 我认为，五角大楼审计失败的问题不仅仅是财务管理的问题，它还反映了美国国防工业的复杂性和政治影响。国防承包商在国防政策中拥有巨大的权力，他们能够影响国防开支的分配和武器采购的决策。这使得政府难以对国防开支进行有效的监管。此外，“未列入预算的优先事项清单”（UPL）的存在也使得预算过程缺乏透明度，这使得政府难以对国防开支进行有效的控制。我们需要对国防工业进行改革，以提高其透明度和问责制。

Deep Dive

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The Pentagon's annual audit assesses its management of taxpayer money. Unlike private companies, the consequences of failing an audit are minimal. The audit process involves independent firms examining financial statements, internal controls, and compliance, but the sheer size and complexity of the Pentagon make it a massive undertaking.
  • Pentagon fails audits due to difficulties in tracking property and inventory.
  • No consequences for failing audits.
  • Audits assess management of taxpayer dollars.

Shownotes Transcript

Last year, it was announced that the US Department of Defense had failed an audit for its seventh straight year, indicating an ongoing inability to track its hundreds of billions of dollars in spending and inventories. Why does this keep happening? Why does the Pentagon get audited in the first place? And what can be done to fix it? On this episode, we speak with Julia Gledhill, a research analyst at the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center. She explains how the budgetary process works, as well as the prospects for the Pentagon ever actually passing an audit. Read more:Pentagon Still Falls Short on Jump-Starting Innovation, Audit Says)Billionaire Feinberg Says Pentagon Needs an Investor’s Savvy) Only Bloomberg.com) subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at  bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots)

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