U.S. Army Manipulated Its Accounting By Trillions Of Dollars

The U.S. Army had to make trillions of dollars worth of accounting manipulations in 2015 just to balance its books because its finances are so disjointed and convoluted, according to a report from the Department of Defense's Inspector General.

The report said the Army's general fund contained $2.4 trillion worth of improper accounting adjustments in one quarter alone last year and $6.5 trillion overall.

Those manipulations essentially made the Army's accounting and financial reporting useless, as Department of Defense and Army managers "could not rely on the data in their accounting systems when making management and resource decisions," the report said.

Military spending has come under heavy scrutiny recently after a Reuters investigation found widespread accounting failures across the Department of Defense.

"As a result, there has been no way to know how the Defense Department – far and away the biggest chunk of Congress’ annual budget – spends the public’s money," Reuters said.

Congress set a Sept. 30, 2017, deadline for a complete audit of Department of Defense spendings, a target that the Army will likely be unable to meet.

Until changes can be made, "there is considerable risk that AGF financial statements will be materially misstated and the Army will not achieve audit readiness by the congressionally mandated deadline of September 30, 2017," the report said.

Read the full Inspector General report here.

Read more from Reuters here.

Image via U.S. Army, Flickr