The Pentagon failed its financial audit for the eighth consecutive year, the Defense Department said Friday, highlighting the ongoing systemic challenge the nation’s largest federal agency faces in fully accounting for its assets.
The department has received a failing grade on every audit since Congress mandated annual reviews beginning in 2018, and is the only one of the government’s 24 major agencies never to pass.
In the Department of Defense Agency Financial Report for fiscal year 2025, auditors identified 26 material weaknesses and two significant deficiencies in the department’s financial reporting.
Among the shortcomings were omissions in the Joint Strike Fighter Program, the Pentagon’s multifaceted effort to develop an affordable strike aircraft for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy and allied nations.
Auditors determined the Pentagon failed to report assets in the program’s Global Spares Pool, and did not accurately record the property.
“The DOD could not provide or obtain accurate and reliable data to verify the existence, completeness or value of its Global Spares Pool assets for the Joint Strike Fighter Program,” according to the report. “As a result, the omission of the Joint Strike Fighter Program Global Spares Pool assets resulted in a material misstatement on the Agency-Wide Financial Statements.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the department remains committed to annual financial audits and is actively conducting a comprehensive review of its budget. The Pentagon reported $4.65 trillion in assets and $4.7 trillion in liabilities, located across all 50 states and more than 40 countries.
“The department cannot resolve decades of war, neglect of America’s defense industrial base and soaring national debt through unchecked spending,” Hegseth said in a statement released with the audit. “We are dedicated to openly sharing audit results and using them as a guide for continuous improvement.
“We believe this report clearly illustrates that progress and our unwavering dedication to ensuring every taxpayer dollar is used effectively and efficiently to strengthen our national defense.”
The department’s chief financial officer, Jules Hurst, wrote in a letter included in the report that the Pentagon aims to resolve “critical issues” and achieve an “unmodified” audit opinion by 2028.
Read the full article here