Pentagon Auditors Request Probe After Criticism

[flashl]

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The agency that audits Pentagon contracts said on Friday it had asked for an investigation into allegations that its supervisors pressured employees to alter audits in favor of contractors.

Supervisors at the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) used intimidation, harassment and threats to pressure auditors to make the changes in their audits, according to a report by the Government Accountability office issued on Wednesday.

The DCAA said it took the report very seriously and had asked the Pentagon's inspector general to investigate.

"It is crucial that we have a clear understanding of any problems associated with our audit effort," DCAA director April Stephenson said in a statement.

What's the prob? 'We' know the Pentagon Still Can't Pass an Audit.

The first in a series of audits of the Defense Department's Fiscal Year 1999 financial statements by the Pentagon's own Inspector General (IG) shows that none of the services is as yet capable of completing a financial audit, even though Congress enacted legislation in 1994 and 1996 setting new financial reporting requirements for the Pentagon.

The report ... found that of $6.9 trillion in accounting entries, only $2.6 trillion could be fully documented and $2.3 trillion in accounting entries "(were) not supported by adequate audit trails or sufficient evidence to determine their validity." Information on the remaining $2 trillion in entries arrived too late and could not be examined, but it is reasonable to assume that the $2.3 trillion in undocumented entries -- representing one-third of all entries -- is a conservative figure.

And, while 'we' are reviewing, how is it that the Pentagon is only appropriated billions$$ each year, yet, it continues to lose trillions $$ annually?