10 Mind-Blowing Pentagon Audit Reports All Americans Need to Know

Based on these U.S. government reports, as a top National Security priority, Congress must begin wide-scale investigations into the epidemic of systemic corruption throughout the Pentagon.

Based on these U.S. government reports, as a top National Security priority, Congress must fulfill their Constitutional duty to begin wide-scale investigations into the epidemic of systemic corruption throughout the Pentagon.

REPORT SUMMARY:

While trillions of dollars in military spending have gone unaccounted for, a record number of Pentagon whistleblowers have been retaliated against and silenced. As you will read throughout this report, the chain of accountability has been effectively dismantled. Department of Defense and Intelligence Community Inspector Generals have been caught covering-up whistleblower reprisal cases and shutting down investigations.

Prominent government insiders are speaking out. Many vital Inspector General positions have been vacated under scandalous circumstances. To make matters even worse, the C.I.A. was caught illegally and unconstitutionally surveilling Congress to interfere with whistleblower communications and investigations.

Meanwhile, political bribery and revolving door corruption have reached all-time highs.  Since the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) first began reporting what is now over $21 trillion in unaccounted for spending, 12,727 government officials have gone through the revolving door with Global Military companies.  In the latest example, after spending 30-years at Boeing, Patrick Shanahan recently took over as acting Defense Secretary and is now in charge of military spending.

Not surprisingly, the Pentagon has missed their deadline and is yet to brief Congress on their failed first-ever full-scope audit. As an initial audit found, "financial management is so weak that its leaders and oversight bodies have no reliable way to track the huge sums [of tax money] it's responsible for." Thus far, the only significant change to come out of the audit: Pentagon accounting fraud has now been "legalized."

According to people who spent their careers working for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the books are cooked as Standard Operating Procedure. There are thousands of accounting and financing operations throughout the Pentagon. No one even knows how many there are, let alone how much money is being spent.

Numerous government investigations, audits and reports have revealed many critical, wide-ranging accounting problems, which have been known for years, yet have never been fixed. There are hundreds of unimplemented solutions, which could save U.S. taxpayers tens of billions of dollars annually.

KEY FINDINGS:

Editor's Note: This report is part of an investigative series on the trillions of dollars in unaccounted for military spending. If you have not researched this issue yet, here's a collection of evidence, including 26 Inspector General audits, government reports and extensive background information: Pentagon Audit: Evidence Proving $21 Trillion Unaccounted For – Opening Statement.

#1) Record Number of Whistleblowers Retaliated Against & Silenced, As Trillions of Dollars Unaccounted For

When it comes to reporting corruption, potential whistleblowers know that the chain of accountability has been effectively dismantled. Investigations clearly prove that the process established under PPD-19 (‘Protecting Whistleblowers with Access to Classified Information’ directive) is failing.

As PEN America reported, "Today the structural integrity of these 'internal channels' appears increasingly shaky…. [Whistleblowers] face three abysmal choices: use the internal channels and risk career suicide, go to the media and face potential jail time, or stay silent in the face of waste, fraud, abuse, illegality, or threats to our democracy."

Even with such tremendous risk involved, a record numbers of whistleblowers have still attempted to come forward using the proper internal channels, only to be retaliated against and silenced.

• According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, over 1000 whistleblowers have been retaliated against and silenced at the Office of the Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG). Over a three-year period, the DoD IG closed 1094 whistleblower retaliation cases without investigating them. A stunning 91% of whistleblower reprisal complaints formally filed at the DoD IG are shutdown without any investigation. [source one -- two -- three]

• On average, one whistleblower is retaliated against and silenced at the DoD IG every single day, 365 days a year. Over the time frame that the GAO investigated, DoD audits reported $6.87 trillion ($6,871,000,000,000) unaccounted for. [source four]

• According to publicly available data from the DoD IG’s semi-annual reports to Congress, from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2016, they dismissed 86% of Military Reprisal cases, and found in favor of whistleblowers in only 0.9% of cases. Citing that data, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) said the DoD IG “substantiated only 7 out of over 1,300 complaints received.” Over that time frame, DoD audits reported $8.58 trillion ($8,582,000,000,000) unaccounted for. [source five -- six]

• The GAO report also reveals that the majority of whistleblower complaints came from Army personnel, over a time frame when DoD audits reported $6.5 trillion unaccounted for within the Army General Fund. As the GAO report states: “Among these [whistleblower complaints], civilians and contractors or subcontractors affiliated with the Army made the highest number of complaints, with 304….” A Congressional Investigation Committee should reopen these cases, which were shutdown without any investigation. [source seven -- eight]

#2) Department of Defense Inspector General Caught Covering Up Corruption, Altering Audit Reports

• As scandalous as the GAO’s findings were, the DoD IG was caught manipulating case records to cover-up their whistleblower reprisal track record, which “had a significant impact on the GAO’s findings.” Therefore, the situation for whistleblowers at the DoD IG is even worse than the GAO’s report revealed. [source nine]

• Former assistant DoD IG John Crane, who was also retaliated against and fired under scandalous circumstances, has said, “key officials retaliated against whistleblowers, destroyed permanent records and altered audits under political pressure.” [source ten]

• In Congressional Testimony, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) said they have “also heard directly from whistleblowers within DoD IG who have expressed serious concerns about the integrity of the office’s processes and investigations, including pressure to back-fill whistleblower case files for the GAO’s review. It is extremely rare to have whistleblowers from an IG shop come forward, but in this case we have a number of them.” [source eleven]

• POGO also found instances where the DoD IG sent whistleblower reprisal cases to offices where the likelihood of retaliation was high: “whistleblowers felt the IG needlessly exposed them to additional retaliation, and had they known the IG was going to refer their disclosures they would have chosen to withdraw their complaints.” [source twelve]

POGO's Recommendations to Congress:

• "Investigate and consider for removal any senior officials found to have illegally destroyed evidence in whistleblower or other case files, improperly instructed employees to back-fill cases, or otherwise interfered with the independence and integrity of investigations;".... [source thirteen]

• "Request a GAO or outside IG audit of the DoD IG’s reprisal investigations to ensure that investigators’ decisions to dismiss, investigate, and substantiate reprisals are proper and based on the legal requirements for examining any evidence presented;".... [source fourteen]

• In Conclusion: "Whistleblowers who report concerns that affect our national security must be lauded, not shunned or, worse, harmed. And the law must protect them. The perceived and real failures of the DoD IG to act as a check on violations of law should be of grave concern.” [source fifteen]

#3) Intelligence Community Whistleblowers Retaliated Against, Cover-Up Attempts Reported, Key Officials Wrongfully Fired, 'Honest Inspectors Flee,' Prominent Insiders Speak Out, 'There Is No Oversight'

• When it comes to cases of retaliation against whistleblowers, the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG) appears to have an even worse track record than the DoD IG. An internal review of 190 whistleblower reprisal cases from six national security agencies revealed that the IC IG ruled in favor of only one whistleblower. The IC IG “ruled against 99% of intelligence community employees who claimed they were retaliated against for blowing the whistle.” [source sixteen]

• As the internal review was nearing completion, it was abruptly shutdown when the new acting head IC IG Wayne Stone, “sequestered the mountain of documents and data produced in the inspection, the product of three staff-years of work. The incident was never publicly disclosed by the office, and escaped mention in the unclassified version of the IC IG’s semiannual report to Congress.” [source seventeen]

• POGO got a leaked copy of an inspection report, which summarized the situation by saying, “A complainant alleging reprisal for making a protected disclosure has a minimal chance to have a complaint processed and adjudicated in a timely and complete manner.” ‘Its conclusion is stark:’ “The deficiencies in reprisal protections policies, procedures, and standards in the evaluated agencies are causing a failure to provide reprisal protections for individuals making protected disclosures.” [source eighteen]

• Overall, "the document produced by the Intelligence Community's IG, which covers 17 U.S. spy agencies, found that many components are not following, 'legally mandated… policies, procedures and standards…. Causing non-substantiation of reprisal claims, incomplete investigations, and for complaints not to be processed.'" [source nineteen]

• "As evidence, the document reports that the Intelligence Community IG substantiated 'only one reprisal allegation' during a six-year period stretching from fiscal year 2010 through fiscal year 2016, and that case took 742 days to complete - well beyond the 240-day limit prescribed in regulation." [source twenty]

• To make matters even worse, Dan Meyer, the Head of Whistleblowing and Source Protection at the IC IG was abruptly fired last year under scandalous circumstances. He was "escorted out of the building while his office was 'sealed off with crime-scene tape.'" The move was widely considered "retaliation against him for blowing the whistle… [on] 'security infractions' after raising concerns about a 'systematic failure' to implement whistleblower protections." [source twenty one]

• Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) said Meyer "was terminated in a process marked by procedural irregularities and serious conflicts of interest" while the IC IG's acting leadership "demonstrated a lack of support for the critical whistleblower protection mission of the office." [source twenty two]

• At the DIA Inspector General's Office (DIA IG), Ron Foster, former head of investigations, and David Steele, a 40-year military and intelligence veteran, blew the whistle on Kristi Waschull, the head DIA IG. They reported that she repeatedly asked them to lie and change "investigative reports about problems and crimes within the agency." They also reported that she limited "the flow of published reports," and "retaliated against them and several colleagues." [source twenty three]

• Foster, Steele and a staff director were fired from the DIA IG without warning, and most of their co-workers have now left as well, as Foreign Policy reported: "Almost everyone who once worked for Steele in the Office of the Inspector General has fled the agency, or is looking to leave, an exodus he attributes to the toxic atmosphere created by the official in charge.… 'There is no oversight,' Steele continued. Whistleblower protection laws 'assume the [Inspector Generals] are the good guys. What happens when your Inspector General is a bad guy?'" [source twenty four]

• The DIA IG hasn't published "the results of any new investigations, and if the systemic issues remain unaddressed or ignored by the agency, it could lead to an intelligence community-wide 'vulnerability,' Steele told FP…. 'The Inspector General is incapable of policing itself,' he said. 'Who's watching the watchers?'" [source twenty five]

• Former NSA Inspector General George Ellard was fired for retaliating against a whistleblower who reported wasteful spending of taxpayer money. However, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stepped in and shockingly reversed his termination. "The Pentagon offered no explanation as to why Mattis chose to overrule the IG External Review Panel and NSA's current director, but the message is abundantly clear: If you work in Pentagon management and retaliate against a whistleblower, there's a good chance you'll keep your job…." [source twenty six]

• "Unfortunately, the Ellard case is not unique within the Pentagon. And as a series of these cases demonstrate, when the internal watchdog function breaks down at the Defense Department, not only are taxpayers ripped off, but intelligence failures costing the lives of thousands of Americans can result." [source twenty seven]

#4) C.I.A. Caught Illegally, Unconstitutionally Spying on Congress, Using National Security Classification to Cover-Up Corruption, Routinely Retaliating Against Investigators & Whistleblowers

• The CIA has been illegally, unconstitutionally spying on Congress in their investigations and communications with whistleblowers, according to a new partially declassified report: "Thanks to information recently released by the Senate Judiciary Committee, we now have fresh, incontrovertible evidence that elements of the Intelligence Community (IC) have monitored the communications of employees or contractors seeking to report waste, fraud, abuse or potential criminal conduct by IC agencies - including communications to House and Senate committees charged with oversight of the IC." [source twenty-eight -- twenty-nine -- thirty]

• "Based on the available public evidence, we also know that nobody in the IC responsible for such domestic spying [on Congress and whistleblowers] has lost their job or faced a criminal referral to the Justice Department. The implications of this are multiple and chilling." [source thirty-one]

• "The fact that the CIA... was reading congressional staff's emails about Intelligence Community whistleblowers raises serious policy concerns, as well as potential constitutional separation-of-powers issues that must be discussed publicly." - Senator Grassley [source thirty-two]

• Jonathan Kaplan, a 33-year veteran investigator at the CIA IG is one of several whistleblowers to file complaints against Christopher Sharpley, the CIA's former acting head IG and Trump's nominee to be permanent head IG. Kaplan said "he was retaliated against because of his legally protected communications with the Senate and House Committees on Intelligence and with the Intelligence Community's Office of the Inspector General." [source thirty-three]

• "Kaplan says he had gone to the Committees and others with a concern that the CIA IG's investigative and oversight capabilities were being compromised. Soon after, he said, retaliators including Sharpley placed false and derogatory information in his personal security file at the Agency, leading to the loss of his security clearance, rendering his continued CIA employment untenable. 'Mr. Sharpley condoned retaliatory actions against CIA employees including me, indicating that ethical and professional standards are not being met,' Kaplan said." [source thirty-four]

• Sharpley is "named in at least three open whistleblower retaliation cases." He first sparked controversy when he "deleted the agency's only copy of a controversial Senate report documenting the CIA's history of using interrogation techniques involving torture." As The Hill reported, "both the electronic copy and a hard disk were destroyed." [source thirty-five -- thirty-six]

• In an interesting coincidence, the CIA was also caught illegally spying on Congress and violating the Constitution when Congress was creating that very same Torture Report. As Senator Mark Udall summed it up, "The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate intelligence committee computers. This grave misconduct is not only illegal, but it violates the US constitution's requirement of separation of powers. These offenses, along with other errors in judgment by some at the CIA, demonstrate a tremendous failure of leadership, and there must be consequences." [source thirty-seven]

• Many IC IG investigators have spoken out about Sharpley's corrupt actions. "Roughly ten or more complaints were brought to an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission unit inside the CIA to consider evidence of workplace violations…" A few "memos cite a 'hostile work environment,' and 'abruptly relieving certain managers and investigators of substantive investigative case work.'" [source thirty-eight]

• A CIA employee memo "cites actions featuring an element of 'cruelty and malice' by IG management as sweeping changes were imposed on a group of veteran investigators." Another memo says, “The reorganization… is the latest in a series of intimidating and bullying tactics employed to move out current INV (investigation division) staff….'" [source thirty-nine]

• "One member of the INV staff told POGO that Sharpley was the office 'enforcer.' Another memo describes an occasion when Sharpley and a colleague summarily disbanded an INV unit - as its four senior staffers were told to join a newly-created group to investigate leaks. 'There is only one problem,' the memo goes on to say, 'this OIG has no ongoing leak investigations. So, these senior special agents and managers hardly have any meaningful reasons to show up to work, except for preserving their spaces until they are graciously ushered out the door by Buckley and/or Sharpley.'" [source forty]

• Another "memo accuses CIA IG management of 'misuse of position, abuse of resources, including unnecessary use of IG subpoenas, corruption, waste of taxpayer funds, and more. These are the very elements that an IG is expected to prevent and protect the Agency against.'" "In that context, Sharpley’s alleged acts of retaliation form part of a broader pattern plaguing America’s spy agencies…." [source forty-one]

• A Pro Publica report on Sharpley misleading Congress at his nomination hearing features several shocking quotes: "The CIA whistleblowers who suffered reprisal were trying to report some really serious criminal activity within the inspector general's office — the fabrication of evidence in a criminal case where the people who did it were never punished," said John Tye, an attorney for CIA IG whistleblowers. "The situation within CIA OIG is a systemic mission failure that must be corrected," said former CIA IG Special Agent Investigator turned whistleblower Andrew Bakaj. [source forty-two]

• As Patrick Eddington from the Cato Institute summed it up: "Why has Warner, ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee -- who is clearly aware of the gravity of these issues -- not prioritized them like he has the Russia investigation? Why did Grassley dither for years in the Meyer case when he had a legal sledgehammer to cut off the salaries of out-of-control CIA bureaucrats spying on whistleblowers trying to convey their concerns to Congress?" [source forty-three]

• "There's a world of difference between the kind of feckless, press-cycle 'oversight' practiced by Grassley and Warner and the kind of accountability-driven action that should be the hallmark of the committees on which both serve. Grassley, Warner, and their Senate and House colleagues have, thanks to the country's founders, ample Article I power to aggressively protect IC whistleblowers and punish their bureaucrat retaliators. That they choose not to is precisely why the fraud, waste, corruption and criminal conduct in the IC continues apace." [source forty-four]

#5) First-Ever Full-Scope Audit Failed, No Congressional Briefing, Accounting Fraud “Legalized”

• In December 2018, the Pentagon failed its first-ever full-scope audit, "a massive effort that was continually put off since it was first called for in a 1990 law." They have now fallen behind schedule in fixing issues raised by the audit. "According to its most recent published timeline for completing the audit, the department was due to brief Congress on the findings and the status of its corrective action plan in January 2019. That briefing has not happened." [source forty-five]

• Based on the limited information that was released, 16 Pentagon agencies failed their audits. The audits found "glaring shortcomings in the Department's management of its IT systems" and overall "the Department did not have the necessary tracking systems to fully keep tabs on money flowing in and out." (see also section 6 for more critical accounting problems) [source forty-six]

• A report summarizing Ernst & Young's initial Defense Logistics audit said: "Across the board, its financial management is so weak that its leaders and oversight bodies have no reliable way to track the huge sums [of tax money] it's responsible for, the firm warned in its initial audit… as the auditors found, the agency often has little solid evidence for where much of that money is going." [source forty-seven]

• According to people who spent their careers working for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the books are cooked as Standard Operating Procedure, there are thousands of transaction per month without any supporting documentation and money is spent without Congressional allocation. [source forty-eight]

• Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was a driving force behind the audit. He has suddenly resigned and his new replacement is Patrick Shannahan, who spent 30-years working for Boeing, the Pentagon's second largest beneficiary of our tax dollars. Having Shannahan in charge of military spending and ongoing audits is an egregious conflict of interest. It is therefore not surprising that the audit has been delayed and deprioritized. * (more on revolving door corruption below) [source forty-nine]

• As The Washington Post reported: "The [audit] effort is complicated by a leadership transition at the highest levels of the Pentagon. The first audit was spearheaded by David Norquist, an accountant and longtime official who serves as comptroller and Chief Financial Officer. But after Shanahan was elevated, Norquist is now performing the duties of the Deputy Defense Secretary. Lawmakers said they are concerned that Norquist's dual roles could draw his attention away from audit activities as the Pentagon functions without a permanent secretary. A Defense Department official speaking on the condition of anonymity... said Norquist is 'still driving the audit' even as he takes on new duties." In addition, John Gibson, the Pentagon's first-ever Chief Management Officer, who was specifically focused on finding missing money, abruptly resigned in September. The Wall Street Journal reported that he was "relieved of his duties" by Defense Secretary Mattis for "lack of performance." [source fifty]

Accounting Fraud Legalized

• Thus far, the only significant change to come out of the Pentagon Audit was the scandalous new accounting "law" SFFAS 56, which legalizes accounting fraud by allowing unaccounted for money to be classified and redacted from public budget reports. In fact, the most recent DoD IG audit report -- from the series of reports that were revealing trillions in unaccounted for spending -- had all the accounting numbers redacted. [source fifty-one -- fifty-two]

• The Intelligence Community, led by the CIA, in fear of being held accountable for the first time ever, was able to get this shocking wavier inserted into government accounting practices. SFFAS 56 now gives them wide-ranging legal cover to conceal how much money they are actually spending. [source fifty-three]

• As the DoD IG reported: “The guidance appears to allow entities to misrepresent their public financial statements…. This conflicts with the AICPA requirement that an auditor assess whether an entity’s financial statements can be considered a fair representation of its use of Federal resources….” [source fifty-four]

• In a report featured in Forbes, Laurence Kotlikoff and Mark Skidmore summed up the situation: "Several months after beginning the [Pentagon] audit, the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) posted a new document, which recommended that the government be allowed to misstate and move funds in order to hide expenditures if it is deemed necessary for national security purposes…. Also troubling is the fact that Standard 56 can include publicly traded corporations with significant funding and/or federal government control." [source fifty-five]

• "With the change in accounting guidelines, which is a full departure from Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), only a few people with high level security clearances have the authority to determine what is deemed to be an issue of national security and these same people will now be allowed to restate financial statements in order to conceal actual expenditures without any disclosure. No one but those few people would know that such modifications were made, thus making evaluation of government financial statements impossible. From this point forward, the federal government will keep two sets of books, one modified (and useless) book for the public and one true book that is hidden." [source fifty-six]

• "The FASAB recommendation effectively institutionalizes opacity in federal financial reporting. Up till now, many aspects of federal finances have been non-transparent because the government has failed to comply with existing financial reporting laws. However, at least citizens had the laws working in their favor. Now citizens have no recourse; opacity is now the law of the land, controlled by executive branch authority and policy. Accounting rules are often thought of as boring and unimportant. In this case, it’s not the case. The new FASAB ruling has enormous and highly dangerous implications for our nation." [source fifty-seven]

• "Seventeen years after 9/11 and we still can't get out from under the 'it's for national security, don't worry about it' rubber-stamping of too much data and information that shouldn't, and otherwise wouldn't, qualify as needing to be classified," says Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. [source fifty-eight]

• As several prominent senators have repeatedly said, information is often classified to cover-up corruption. Senator Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Wyden (D- Ore.), who is on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, have consistently expressed deep concerns over how information is often classified to cover-up corruption. Grassley and Wyden are senior Senators who have been in pivotal positions to know about classified matters for an extended period of time. [source fifty-nine]

#6) Fixable Pentagon Accounting Problems Ignored, Well-Proven, Long-Established Systemic Failure to Address Known Critical Issues

• As a Reuters investigation revealed: “A review of multiple reports from oversight agencies in recent years shows that the Pentagon also has systematically ignored warnings about its accounting practices. ‘These types of adjustments, made without supporting documentation… mask much larger problems in the original accounting data,’ the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said. Plugs also are symptomatic of one very large problem: the Pentagon’s chronic failure to keep track of its money – how much it has, how much it pays out and how much is wasted or stolen.” [source sixty]

• As Reuters summed it up, “an organization that fields the most sophisticated technology in the world to fight wars and spy on enemies has come to rely on an accounting system of antiquated, error-prone computers… these thousands of duplicative and inefficient systems cost billions of dollars to staff and maintain… efforts to replace these systems with better ones have ended in costly failures… it all adds up to billions of taxpayer dollars a year in losses to mismanagement, theft and fraud." [source sixty-one]

• Two previous Defense Secretaries have publicly acknowledged shocking fraud throughout military spending: Donald Rumsfeld summed up the Pentagon as a "black hole" where "tax dollars disappear by the trillions" and called the accounting problems "terrifying"; Robert Gates said he couldn't even "get answers to questions such as 'how much money are you spending?'," let alone what it was being spent on. Gates summed up the crisis by saying that there are "unaccountable fiefdoms" operating throughout the Pentagon. [source sixty-two -- sixty-three]

• No one knows how many secret financing and accounting systems there are.  In an interview with Reuters, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England said, "There are thousands and thousands of systems. I'm not sure anybody knows how many systems there are." The Pentagon once estimated that there were 2200 of them. However, a little-noticed 2012 report by the Defense Business Board estimated that there at least 5000. [source sixty-four -- sixty-five]

• Subcommittee Chairman on Federal Spending Oversight Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) recently expressed his frustration with the Pentagon’s accounting crisis by saying: “The department charged with carrying out our greatest Constitutional responsibility has set the lowest possible standard for accountability.” [source sixty-six]

• William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, summed up the accountability crisis at the Pentagon by saying: “Call it irony or call it symptomatic of the department's way of life, but an analysis by the Project on Government Oversight notes the Pentagon has so far spent roughly $6 billion on 'fixing' the audit problem — with no solution in sight. If anything, the Defense Department’s accounting practices have been getting worse." [source sixty-seven]

While the Pentagon has been able to ignore the law requiring full-scope department-wide audits, the DoD IG has conducted audits of military spending where corruption has been detected, as we have seen in the reports on trillions of dollars in unaccounted spending year after year. Here are a few highlights summarizing DoD IG Audit Findings:

• "The financial management systems DOD has put in place to control and monitor the money flow don't facilitate but actually 'prevent DOD from collecting and reporting financial information that is accurate, reliable, and timely;'"

• "DOD managers do not know how much money is in their accounts at the Treasury, or when they spend more than Congress appropriates to them, nor does DOD 'record, report, collect, and reconcile' funds received from other agencies or the public;"

• "DOD tracks neither buyer nor seller amounts when conducting transactions with other agencies;"

• "DOD frequently enters 'unsupported' (i.e. imaginary) amounts in its books and uses those figures to make the books balance;"

• "DOD does not know who owes it money, nor how much. 'Audit trails' are not kept 'in sufficient detail,' which means no one can track the money;"

• "DOD's 'Internal Controls,' intended to track the money, are inoperative. Thus, DOD cost reports and financial statements are inaccurate, and the size, even the direction (in plus or minus values), of the errors cannot be identified;"

• "DOD does not observe many of the laws that govern all this." [source sixty-eight]

As Winslow Wheeler, who worked on national security issues for the U.S. Senate and Government Accountability Office, summed it up:

"If you have a system that does not accurately know what its spending history is, and does not know what it is now (and does not care to redress the matter), how can you expect it to make a competent, honest estimate of future costs?

It is self-evident that an operation that tolerates inaccurate, unverifiable data cannot be soundly managed; it exempts itself from any reasonable standard of efficiency….

It is as if the accountability and appropriations clauses of the U.S. Constitution were just window dressing, behind which this mind-numbing malfeasance thrives.

Technically, this is a violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act, a statute carrying felony sanctions of fines and imprisonment." [source sixty-nine]

#7) Many Critical Cyber Vulnerabilities Ignored at Pentagon & U.S. Treasury, An Open Invitation For Criminals Worldwide

• The Treasury Department's financial reporting system has significant security gaps that "leave the door open for online bad actors to tamper with the government’s spending data." The Government Accountability Office discovered "eight different flaws in the system used by the department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service to check the accuracy of the annual financial reports it publishes for every government agency." [source seventy]

• These security gaps, in addition to "unresolved issues GAO previously identified within the bureau… 'increase the risk of unauthorized access to, modification of, or disclosure of sensitive data and programs and disruption of critical operations.'" [source seventy-one]

• "The Fiscal Service Bureau is responsible for keeping tabs on the government's debt and monitoring agencies' revenue, spending, obligations and other fiscal behavior…. auditors said future inaccuracies could go undetected." [source seventy-two]

• "Of the eight flaws revealed in the audit, four could be exploited to illegally access and change financial data and resources, three could potentially allow for unauthorized changes to hardware and software security, and one involved the bureau's risk management system… they collectively represent 'a significant deficiency' in the bureau's internal controls, GAO said…." [source seventy-three]

• "Investigators also found the bureau had yet to fully correct 15 different deficiencies GAO identified in previous audits, including some the bureau said had already been addressed." [source seventy-four]

• A DoD IG audit recently reported that "the Pentagon had yet to correct 266 cyber vulnerabilities highlighted in numerous watchdog reports between July 2017 and June 2018. Some of the issues were identified long ago — two dated back to 2008." [source seventy-five]

• "Auditors specifically found many shortcomings related to cyber governance, or the policies and practices that help officials monitor risk. 'Without proper governance, the DoD cannot ensure that it effectively identifies and manages cybersecurity risk as it continues to face a growing variety of cyber threats…' the IG wrote in the annual report on the Pentagon's cyber posture." [source seventy-six]

• "In the redacted report, auditors detailed a myriad of issues that had gone unaddressed over the previous year. The department, for instance, has not yet taken steps to comply with the cybersecurity framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology." [source seventy-seven]

• "Auditors also reiterated the need to put in place more controls to limit user access and monitor activity across Pentagon networks. The IG published a separate report detailing how inadequate controls left billions of dollars in annual payments potentially vulnerable to bad actors." [source seventy-eight]

• The astounding lack of accountability and oversight concerning military spending and the hundreds of "cyber vulnerabilities" that remain unfixed year after year amount to an open invitation for every criminal element worldwide. Clearly, global intelligence agencies, military contractors and hackers have ample opportunity to exploit this system.

#8) Known Solutions - That Can Save Tens of Billions of Tax Dollars Annually - Not Implemented, As Key Gov Accountability Offices Drastically Underfunded & Understaffed

• Solutions to known problems that could save U.S. taxpayers at least $87 billion have not been implemented. "Congress is increasingly trying to force federal departments, especially the Pentagon, to quit disregarding audit recommendations on how to get more bang for billions of dollars in taxpayer bucks." Agencies have "not implemented more than 15,000 proposals from their inspectors general that could save $87 billion - some 38 percent of that money at the Pentagon." [source seventy-nine]

• "The Defense Department has more unheeded audit recommendations than any other agency, according to the Government Accountability Office. The Pentagon has failed to implement more than half the 1,122 recommendations that GAO has put forth to improve defense programs since fiscal 2014…. 'It's unacceptable that federal agencies ignore thousands of recommendations on how to become more efficient and save taxpayer dollars," Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C…." [source eighty]

• In addition to the GAO recommendations, "For the second year in a row, the Defense Department's inspector general has released what it calls a 'compendium' of open recommendations. The document… details all of the recommendations the DOD IG has issued to the Pentagon that have been awaiting management attention for at least a year, [it] now includes 1,558 separate matters, up from 1,298 in the 2017 version. Fifty-six have been open for at least five years; seven have been open for eight years or more…." [source eighty-one]

• "The DoD OIG reported a number of open and unimplemented recommendations that appear straightforward and easy to implement, yet… have remained outstanding for years. For instance, in 2010, the DoD OIG issued a report concerning the Air Force's time and materials contracts…. The OIG reported… this unimplemented recommendation represents a potential cost savings of over $24 million. Although the DoD OIG made the recommendation nearly six years ago, [it] has remained unimplemented and the cost savings for taxpayers remains unrealized." [source eighty-two see page 21]

• The Pentagon is also a significant offender when it comes to improper payments, another large-scale government-wide scandal, which accounted for $144 billion in misspending in just one fiscal year, FY 2016. "A major portion of wasteful government spending is a broad category known as 'improper payments,' which are payments made in the wrong amount (including both overpayments and underpayments), to the wrong people, or for the wrong reason. An estimate from fiscal year 2016 showed $144 billion in misspending that year - an all-time high. These improper payments result from insufficient financial accountability, and divert dollars from where they are needed." [source eighty-three]

• Even with all this incredible corruption being uncovered, the work of Inspector Generals, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Congressional Investigations Committees have been significantly undermined in many ways. They are drastically underfunded and understaffed. "Too often, the IGs suffer from inadequate or inconsistent budgets. Resource constraints can directly affect the ability of IGs to conduct effective and consistent oversight…. Congress needs to recognize the importance of proportionally funding IG oversight." [source eighty-four]

• Due to the record-breaking corruption presently taking place, the return on investment (ROI) when it comes to funding accountability mechanisms within our government is outstanding. It is has been proven to be the best bang for our buck that we can get. Yet, this is where big cuts in funding are occurring. For an effective budgeting metric, in fiscal year 2017, the GAO uncovered over $73.9 billion in fraud and wasteful spending. For every $1 they get, they give a return of $128 dollars. [source eighty-five]

• Meanwhile, where the most corruption is taking place, where we get the least bang for our buck, that's where funding is increasing – namely, in DoD agencies where huge sums of taxpayer money have gone unaccounted for. With budget management like that, it is no wonder we have an all-time record-breaking national debt of over $21 trillion, not to mention the additional $21 trillion in unaccounted for military spending. [source eighty-six]

• Another significant issue undermining Inspector Generals is the lack of congressionally approved leadership. "POGO firmly believes that the effectiveness of an IG office can be diminished when that office does not have permanent leadership, especially when the vacancy exists for an extended period of time, as many of the current vacancies have." There are presently 12 vacancies in head IG positions. [source eighty-seven -- eighty-eight]

• "Permanent IGs undergo significant review — especially the IGs that require Senate confirmation — before taking their position. That vetting process helps instill confidence among Congress, agency officials, whistleblowers, and the public that the office of the IG is truly independent, and that its investigations and audits are accurate and credible. In addition, a permanent IG has the ability to set a long-term strategic plan for the office, including establishing investigative and audit priorities." [source eighty-nine]

• "An acting official… is known by all OIG staff to be temporary, which one former IG has argued 'can have a debilitating effect on [an] OIG, particularly over a lengthy period.'… Addressing the DoD IG's deep cultural problems -- all of which predate Principal Deputy IG Fine -- requires permanent leadership." [source ninety]

• The last confirmed head DoD IG resigned shortly before an audit report revealed $6.5 trillion was unaccounted for in one fiscal year, FY 2015. Since that audit, the DoD IG office has not had a congressionally approved Inspector General, that position has been unfilled since January 2016. In addition, the CIA has not had a congressionally approved IG since 2015. [source ninety-one -- ninety-two]

#9) Since 1998, $21 Trillion Unaccounted For, $2.6 Billion in Bribes and 12,727 Government Officials Through Global Military Revolving Door

• Since 1998, the Office of the Inspector General has reported over $21 trillion in unaccounted for money. Over this same timeframe, Global Military companies have spent at least $2.6 billion in known campaign contributions and lobbying activity. Beyond this shocking amount of money spent influencing politicians, the revolving door -- between Global Military companies and government officials -- has been a significant source of scandalously corrupt behavior. Since 1998, a stunning 12,727 government officials have gone through the revolving door with Global Military companies. [source ninety-three -- ninety-four -- ninety-five]

• As shocking as those political corruption statistics are, given the loosening of campaign finance laws regarding "dark money" and PACs, and numerous military-intelligence-related shell companies and aligned interests, it is impossible to account for all the money they have spent influencing legislation and the actual overall number of government officials who have gone through the revolving door to companies that benefit from the Pentagon's lack of accountability. [source ninety-six]

#10) Classifying Corruption: Under the Guise of National Security, U.S. Treasury Looted & Constitution Rendered Null & Void

• Other than the corruptly implemented “legalized bribery” schemes referenced above, after an extensive analysis, it is evident that the National Security Act, and corresponding agencies and laws derived therefrom – with the power of secrecy that it provides – has been the primary enabler of the greatest theft of taxpayer wealth in history. [source ninety-seven]

• The National Security Act set several precedents that have severely undermined the U.S. Constitution. The National Security Act created the “National Military Establishment,” the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, thereby codifying institutional secrecy. [source ninety-eight]

• Corresponding laws, such as the State Secrets Privilege, Classified Information Procedures Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the PATRIOT Act, the Totten Rule, The Espionage Act and the recent Executive Order 13526, which defines rules for the classification of information, have all played a pivotal role in concealing unprecedented criminal activity. [source ninety-nine]

CONCLUSION

Based on the extensive evidence provided throughout this series of reports, it is evident that we are obligated to confront an extremely disturbing reality: under the guise of National Security, an outrageously corrupt culture of unaccountable War Profiteering has taken over the United States government. The U.S. Treasury is being looted and the Constitution has been effectively rendered null and void.

The fact that these issues have not been covered in the mainstream media, the subject of significant congressional investigations, and a primary focus of political representatives calls into serious question the integrity and legitimacy of all leadership and responsible parties.

In light of the information contained within this investigative series, a Congressional Investigation Committee needs to take immediate action. As a top National Security priority, Congress must urgently begin wide-scale investigations into the epidemic of systemic corruption throughout the Pentagon.

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