How $21 Trillion in U.S. Tax Money Disappeared. “Full Scope Audit” of the Pentagon

Better just give them more $$..that will fix it.

a reply to: 727Sky

The Pentagon should have in their records budget vs actual reports for all active programs. A lot of time and expense is spent on tracking this information by contractors so I don't think "program cost inflation" is part of this missing money.

Let me modify that statement, that's how things worked in the industry 30 years ago. Major production contract were generally 'Not to Exceed' contracts and any unforeseen overruns were either absorbed by the contractor or would be included in 'yearly' renegotiation with the Department of Defense.

The coming of 'deregulation' may have taken out those regulatory requirements in government contracts. You can clearly see the importance of careful and audited (in and out of house) cost accounting.

So this $21 Trillion of missing funds requires more investigation then just cost overruns.

I will look at the site you've referenced and hoping will find some of the basics I'd want to know before any inquiry.

One) Just what is the basis for determining $21 Trillion in 'lost' funds. Is it based on yearly public budget numbers vs public actual costs in a direct manner.

Two) Remember a budget is just a made up number. Is the basis based on Actual Expenditure and 'Contingency' funds properly accounted vs expenditures.

Three) Contingency expenditures should be properly accounted for (their will alway be 'wiggle' room - this is a herculean accounting task). Is the basis of a missing $21 Trillion based on something entirely different then Budget numbers. Say perhaps, actual cash expenditures - incoming vs outgoing. I have trouble imagining that but I actually don't know how the Pentagon and the Defense Department builds up their accounting system and how it has changed over the years. Poor changes in this 'accounting structure' could account for 100% of the $21 Trillion discrepancy.

I'd want a whole lot more information before assigning blame or culpability. It could just be an increasing degree of bad education/training and incompetence.

I suspect it is this 'regulation is bad' mentality is causative in any scenario to more or less degree.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: drewlander

Check this one out.
Another 21 trillion unaccounted for..

www.gaia.com...

Thank you for adding additional content to the thread:
www.gaia.com...

Skidmore and his students’ analysis used publicly available government documents from the two agencies’ websites to expose this inconsistency. Shortly after Skidmore published his findings, both agencies removed those documents from public access.

They should check who gave to order to remove the documents..

The Army’s annual budget for FY 2015 was $122 billion, meaning that an adjustment for inadequate transactions might be around $1.2 billion. The Army’s actual adjustments for FY 2015 were $6.5 trillion – 54 times what it was authorized to spend.

IMO the Army is small potatoes when compared to the NAVY or the Air Force so one can only imagine the amount of money "disappeared "...

That amount of unauthorized, “missing” money is equivalent to about $65,000 for every person in America. The government has estimated that the federal deficit sits at around $20 trillion, an entire $1 trillion less than what Skidmore found to be missing in these adjustments.

Whatever, however, the money has gone unaccounted for, this needs to be sorted out and accounting policies changed so that this crap stops... any appearance/evidence of wrong doing can be dealt with harshly/thoroughly for all the citizens to see in public hearings ...

Maybe after the audit and excuses are finished something will get done ?

Therein, another task that President Trump is very good at, business financial accountability. He should demand that the assigned Deputy Director, the head of all CFO's of federal agencies , force them all to show the books that account for this money, lest they all be fired.


How do You know Trump is 'very good' at this function? How would You even gauge a scale? What, for instance, would You rate someone who has had , oh I don't know, 4 Bankruptcies? How would You rate that person?


You typed "force them all to show the books..." Isn't this called an "audit"? Maybe show the audits and then Obama's birth certificate for the Gran Finale?

*** If You KNOW Trump is "very good" at this function because You read that after Trump tweeted it on Twitter™, never mind, treat My questions as rhetorical in nature...

And they thought "hammer" awards were the answer...... Research is your friend