0
0

The Pentagon’s Bottomless Money Pit - Where does the DoD’s $700 billion annual budget go?


 invite response                
2019 Mar 20, 5:19am   1,196 views  14 comments

by null   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

A retired Air Force auditor — we’ll call him Andy — tells a story about a thing that happened at Ogden Air Force Base, Utah. Sometime in early 2001, something went wrong with a base inventory order. Andy thinks it was a simple data-entry error. “Someone ordered five of something,” he says, “and it came out as an order for 999,000.” He laughs. “It was probably just something the machine defaulted to. Type in an order for a part the wrong way, and it comes out all frickin’ nines in every field.” Nobody actually delivered a monster load of parts. But the faulty transaction — the paper trail for a phantom inventory adjustment never made — started moving through the Air Force’s maze of internal accounting systems anyway. A junior-level logistics officer caught it before it went out of house. Andy remembers the incident because, as a souvenir, he kept the June 28th, 2001, email that circulated about it in the Air Force accounting world, in which the dollar value of the error was discussed.

Wanted to keep you all informed of the massive inventory adjustment processed at [Ogden] on Wednesday of this week. It isn’t as bad as we first thought ($8.5 trillion). The hit . . . $3.9 trillion instead of the $8.5 trillion as we first thought.

The Air Force, which had an $85 billion budget that year, nearly created in one stroke an accounting error more than a third the size of the U.S. GDP, which was just over $10 trillion in 2001. Nobody lost money. It was just a paper error, one that was caught.

“Even the Air Force notices a trillion-dollar error,” Andy says with a laugh. “Now, if it had been a billion, it might have gone through.”

Years later, Andy watched as another massive accounting issue made its way into the military bureaucracy. The Air Force changed one of its financial reporting systems, and after the change, the service showed a negative number for inventory — everything from engine cores to landing gear — in transit.

Much More, Longer Reading: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/pentagon-budget-mystery-807276/

#Pentagon #Budget #SNAFU

Comments 1 - 14 of 14        Search these comments

1   anonymous   2019 Mar 20, 5:21am  

Pentagon Lost Track of $2 Billion Worth of F-35 Equipment

Department of Defense officials haven’t kept track of more than $2 billion worth of government-owned equipment involved in producing the F-35 stealth jet, according to a report released this week by the Pentagon’s inspector general.

Lead contractor Lockheed Martin manages roughly 3.45 million pieces of government property as part of the F-35 program, the watchdog said, including special tooling, molds and test rigging. But defense officials have “failed to implement procedures, and failed to appoint and hold officials responsible, to account for and manage government property for more than 16 years.”

As a result, “the DoD does not know the actual value of the F‑35 property and does not have an independent record to verify the contractor‑valued government property of $2.1 billion for the F‑35 Program.”

Without proper records, the joint program office overseeing development and production of the F-35 cannot evaluate Lockheed’s use of government property and cannot hold the contractor accountable, the report said. The Pentagon cannot verify, for example, Lockheed’s claim that it has lost $271 million worth of government property.

The inspector general recommended that the F-35 program office begin to follow the required accounting procedures before Lockheed commences full-rate production.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2019/03/15/Pentagon-Lost-Track-2-Billion-Worth-F-35-Equipment
2   Bd6r   2019 Mar 20, 7:55am  

Kakistocracy says
Where does the DoD’s $700 billion annual budget go?

Is this a rhetorical question?

We all know this money primarily goes into pockets of the Masters of Universe. Why do you hate success?
3   FortWayneAsNancyPelosiHaircut   2019 Mar 20, 8:03am  

Russian bots work hard to discredit us military and undermine America.
4   Bd6r   2019 Mar 20, 10:25am  

FortWayneIndiana says
Russian bots work hard to discredit us military and undermine America.

Whoever is asking this question does not really matter. We can not keep spending more than we earn as a country.

It would be reasonable to get out of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan - that would save a lot of money and American lives. Furthermore, it would be even more reasonable to make Germans, French, and other assorted West Europeans make pay at least something for their defense, which would save even more money for US taxpayers.

I think Russians benefit from Americans sucked into Middle East quagmire, just like Americans benefited from Russians sucked into Afghanistan quagmire.
5   Heraclitusstudent   2019 Mar 20, 11:17am  

Kakistocracy says
Where does the DoD’s $700 billion annual budget go?


6   RC2006   2019 Mar 20, 11:25am  

Flying saucers and orbital laser cannons, what rock have you been under the last 50 years.

;)
7   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 20, 11:27am  

d6rB says
It would be reasonable to get out of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan - that would save a lot of money and American lives. Furthermore, it would be even more reasonable to make Germans, French, and other assorted West Europeans make pay at least something for their defense, which would save even more money for US taxpayers.


No, No, No! Russia! Russia! Russia!

8   AD   2019 Mar 20, 11:32am  

FortWayneIndiana says
Russian bots work hard to discredit us military and undermine America.


Yeah, maybe ChiCom bots too.

I think Trump is giving the Pentagon about $80 billion a year more in order to buy more submarines and AEGIS destroyers, as well as stealth fighters. A fully outfitted and new Virginia class submarine with land attack capability and special warfare features costs $3.2 billion. I heard they want to double the production rate for the Virginia class submarines. The new class of Virginia subs have 40 launch tubes for the land attack capability.

And the new land attack missiles (i.e., Tomahawks) have new navigation features such as independent operation without use of GPS, hardened capabilities against EM attack, etc.
9   Heraclitusstudent   2019 Mar 20, 11:39am  

If Russia wasn't wasting 4.3% of its GDP on weapons, maybe it could have better infrastructures, or encourage women to have more babies.
10   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 20, 11:41am  

Heraclitusstudent says
If Russia wasn't wasting 4.3% of its GDP on weapons, maybe it could have better infrastructures, or encourage women to have more babies.



They already do that, that's what Pussy Riot (and the previous artgroup, whose name I forget) was protesting, the media neglected to mention.

They were opposed to tax breaks and subsidies for mothers, because babies bad, global warming (but be sure to invite Muslims who pop out 7 kids).
11   Bd6r   2019 Mar 20, 11:45am  

MisterLearnToCode says
but be sure to invite Muslims who pop out 7 kids

Russians do that as well. Moscow has over 2M Muslims now, who just like illegals here, work in construction etc

12   AD   2019 Mar 20, 11:53am  

Da, Chechnya alone has 1.4 million Muslims.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Russia#/media/File:Islam_in_Russia_(Arena_Atlas_2012).png
13   Bd6r   2019 Mar 20, 11:58am  

AD says
Chechnya alone has 1.4 million Muslims

Those are "native" to Chechnya - but the ones in Moscow come from other former Soviet states (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, etc)
14   AD   2019 Mar 20, 12:15pm  

d6rB says
Those are "native" to Chechnya - but the ones in Moscow come from other former Soviet states (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, etc)


Da, like Russian-speaking Uzbeki's, etc. The Borat types. Hopefully more like Borat than the Boston Marathon bombers.

Please register to comment:

api   best comments   contact   latest images   memes   one year ago   random   suggestions