The Department of Defense’s inspector general said there’s a growing interest across the Pentagon to conduct another agency-wide audit following the first assessment that found pervasive weaknesses, Federal News Network reported Thursday.
Carmen Malone, deputy assistant IG for audit and financial management readiness at DoD, said defense officials now understand the impact of the audit. “The biggest thing we’ve seen this year was tone at the top, from the secretary of defense all the way down to the commanders at the bases,†she said. Â
DoD’s first agency-wide audit reported over 2,400 findings and recommendations, with nearly half of that number related to financial issues and the other focused on weaknesses of information technology systems. Malone said the Pentagon has required its components to have corrective action plans and timelines to resolve the issues. DoD has also established a centralized database to track the efforts and to maintain accountability over the deficiencies.
“Seeing that process that we’ve never seen before is huge,†Malone said. “If you’re making people focus on the corrective actions and ensuring that those corrective actions address the problem, you will make progress both in readiness towards the audit, in operations, in saving money.â€
However, the DoD IG office warned the next audit might reveal more issues in 2019.
