Recent audits of the fiscal year 1998 financial statements for DOD and the individual military services, performed by the DOD Inspector General (IG) and the service audit agencies, and our report on the U.S. government's financial statements have highlighted many critical DOD financial management problems. These problems not only hamper the department's ability to produce timely and accurate financial management information, but also significantly impair efforts to improve the economy and efficiency of its operations. Key areas of concern relate to ineffective asset control and accountability, which affects DOD's visibility over weapons systems and inventory, and unreliable cost and budget information, which affects DOD's ability to effectively measure performance, reduce costs, and maintain adequate funds control.

T-AIMD/NSIAD-99-145 DOD Financial Management: More Reliable Information Key to Assuring Accountability and Managing Defense Operations More Efficiently

Inventory worth billions of dollars has been vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse because the Air Force either did not adhere to control procedures or did not establish effective procedures. Because of these control weaknesses, repair contractors have access to items and quantities of items not specified in their contracts, and the Defense Contract Management Agency does not have the quarterly reports on shipment status that it needs to independently verify that contractors have accounted for shipments of government-furnished material. In addition, contractor receipt posting and discrepancy reporting practices produce incomplete and inaccurate information, impairing the ability of the Air Force to monitor shipments. Even if contractor records on shipment receipts were accurate, the Air Force's system cannot reconcile material shipped to contractors with material received by contractors, so the Air Force cannot readily identify shipments with unconfirmed receipts. Consequently, the Air Force cannot readily account for these shipments, which include classified, sensitive, and pilferable items. Finally, the Air Force has not exercised the required extent of program oversight by collecting data on contractor shipment discrepancies and using it to assess practices for safeguarding shipped inventory; as a result, it cannot identify the extent and cause of contractor shipment discrepancies or take corrective action.