It may end up costing at least $7 billion just for the Department of Defense to fix its byzantine accounting system, so military leaders and lawmakers can actually know what the Pentagon is doing with its money.

 

The Defense Department has already spent $6 billion trying to establish a new financial system, which won’t be ready for another three years, according to officials. After discovering the bookkeeping was in even worse shape than expected, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta determined his department may need another $1 billion to straighten things out.

 

According to the Government Accountability Office, the Pentagon—which consumes 43% of all discretionary spending in the federal budget—cannot fully show how its appropriations are allocated.

 

Panetta inherited a department that has spent years, if not decades, with a “semi-feudal” accounting system, according to his predecessor, Robert Gates, who was in charge for five years and found it “nearly impossible to get accurate information and answers to questions such as ‘how much did you spend’ and ‘how many people do you have.’”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Pentagon's Accounting Shambles May Cost an Additional $1 Billion (by R. Jeffrey Smith, iWatch News)