Pentagon struggles with $15bn hole in accounts
Audits reveal Pentagon has failed to account for billions in trucks, water grenades and machine guns
An audit passed to congressmen on influential committee has claimed that the
Pentagon did not have adequate documentation to accounts for up to $7.8bn
dollars of equipment bought from contractors for the Iraq reconstruction effort.
A report in the Washington Post said the audit claimed that
receipts, vouchers, signatures, invoices and other paperwork were missing in
such quantities that $7.8bn worths of equipment was unaccounted for.
An earlier audit unearthed problems in accounting for $5.2bn in goods, while
a senior Democrat politician, Henry Waxman has claimed that the Defense
Department has failed to account accurately for $1.8bn of seized Iraqi assets it
spent.
The Post quoted the department’s deputy inspector general for audit saying
that finance staff were not ‘adequately trained’.