What do Key DoD Leaders think of the Audit?

The full-scope Department of Defense (DoD) audit is underway and many leaders in the DoD Community are aware that passing the audit with an unmodified or “clean” opinion is a process and will take some time. DoD expects to spend roughly $918M on the audit. That figure is comprised of $367M to conduct the audit this year, and $551M to remediate the audit findings by external auditors.

Federal News Radio collected several statements from key DoD leaders relating to audit. The first is from Assistant Secretary of the Navy’s Financial Management and Comptroller Office, Tom Harker, who said,

• "...Don’t necessarily judge us for the problems that the auditors are finding in our first-ever audit. Judge us on how quick we are to develop and execute corrective actions."

Mark Easton, the Deputy Chief Financial Officer of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, said,

• "We expanded the number of people both inside the financial management community and outside. Most importantly, we established an infrastructure so that we could really get value out of that audit."

Lastly, Wesley Miller, Assistant Secretary for the Army for Financial Operations, said,

• "There’s a military readiness side and then there’s the political, civilian, business side that sometimes work against each other. On the military side, it’s always readiness and readiness first. And to tell the story as far as where audit fits into readiness, it is sometimes a tough sell."

Clearly, these key DoD leaders know that the road to a successful audit will be a long one. However, they are expecting to see advancements year-over-year until passing the audit becomes routine.

St. Michael’s not only assists the DoD with Audit Readiness support services, but we also assist with strategic communications and change management. Both are key elements to transferring knowledge and achieving buy-in to new internal controls and business processes. We will continue to do our part in the years ahead to help DoD achieve their financial management and audit goals.