Officials of the US defence establishment cannot always justify the expenditures made, they may be overpaying contractors millions of dollars. This was reported by Intercept with reference to a report by the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General.
According to Intercept, just last month the US Department of Defence “failed its sixth consecutive audit”, highlighting the lack of oversight of the funds that Congress allocates to the armed forces each year. Among the explanations for its failure, the Pentagon unconvincingly suggested that there was “some hidden progress” and that “we’re getting better and better at it.”
The Pentagon also made a mistake in overseeing the money it sends to U.S. allies; in June, the agency found that an accounting error in June caused the value of military aid to Ukraine to be overstated by $6.2 billion.
“The inspector general also found that Pentagon officials did not always explain payments they make when terminating contractor projects; they may have overpaid contractors by $22 million,” the publication wrote.
In a semi-annual report to US lawmakers, the F-35 fifth-generation fighter-bomber production programme was described as a “material weakness” that leads to difficulties in auditing the department. The department has never been able to report on the inventory for the programme, the publication notes.
The report of the Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General demonstrated that the US military-industrial complex has failed to resolve long-standing problems that lead to serious waste of taxpayer funds, summarises Intercept.
Recall, earlier the channel News Nation said that residents of the United States have more debt than at any time in history. Today, the cost of living for the average American has increased by 14 per cent, and the total debt of American citizens has reached $17 trillion.