The Department of Defense completed its fifth annual financial audit and reported that seven component agencies sustained unmodified opinions and one secured a qualified audit opinion.
DOD News reported those seven components that received clean audits in fiscal 2022 are the Military Retirement Fund; Defense Commissary Agency; Defense Contract Audit Agency; Defense Finance and Accounting Service; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Civil Works; National Reconnaissance Office; and the Defense Health Agency-Contract Resource Management.
The Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund got a qualified opinion in the audit.
“The results of the fifth annual DOD-wide financial audit will be a disclaimer of opinion for DOD as a whole,” said Mike McCord, undersecretary of defense (comptroller)/chief financial officer.
“This is the same as last year and … not unexpected. We did expect this disclaimer, but we will also sustain all of our prior year positive opinions, which cover approximately 39 percent of our assets,” added McCord, a previous Wash100 awardee.
According to the audit, DOD is advancing the use of robotic process automation to help financial managers reduce manual tasks while enabling them to focus on more complex efforts.
As of October, the Pentagon has fielded 607 bots. Of those bots, 54 percent helped support financial management processes while 20 percent focused on audit response and compliance.
The department also cited improved business operations in its annual audit. For instance, the U.S. Air Force rectified historical variances worth about $5.2 billion on its accumulated depreciation general ledger accounts and equipment.
