The Department of the Navy is ‘Ballin’ Out of Control.’

Navy suspense accounts, “did not have controls in place to properly account for the [Department of the Navy] suspense account transactions,” for $67 million. Perhaps Adam “Pacman” Jones and the Department of the Navy had a rough weekend in Vegas. Although, what’s $67 million to the Navy or the Pentagon for that matter. The Pentagon lost a known, $34 Million in Afghanistan funding and stated, “No one should be punished.”  Similarly, $1.6 Billion is still unaccounted and suspected to have been stolen  – in Iraq funding. Then a measly $67 million by that reasoning; whatever, brah – Vegas bound, to make it rain!

Yet, an Admiral or General must have used his/her Government Purchase/IMPAC Card at Deja Vu Showgirls or Sapphire’s. Remember that the Department of the Navy, includes the Marine Corps [Yeah, sorry the USMC is not really a branch, hence, Marines = My Ass Rides In Navy Equipment Sir.] The accounting in this debacle accounts as 77% Navy, 23% Marine Corps, and 1% “Other.”

Nevertheless, at the Alexandria, Virgina headquarters of the Office of the Inspector General, United States Department of Defense, a phone call from the credit card company may have been received to launch this investigation. There were questions about suspicious charges and realistically assuming that the Inspector General was not invited to the Vegas party. Such a chain of events would have automatically launched an Inspector General investigation into Navy spending. Albeit the listed reasoning is a bit more vanilla.

In the Inspector Generals’ words,

Our objective was to determine whether Department of Defense (DoD) had controls in place to record Department of the Navy (DON) suspense account balances on the proper component‑level financial statements, whether the accounts were being used for the intended purpose, and whether transactions were resolved in a timely manner.”

The Audit Report, titled; Financial Management – Improvements Needed in Managing Department of the Navy Suspense Accounts (Project No. D2015-D000FS-0204.000) was released on June 30th. While the report does not annotate any Las Vegas charges, it does question a great deal of Navy accounting.

In the findings of the report, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service–Cleveland (DFAS‑CL,) is similarly implicated and where DON and DFAS-CL connect, is where the suspect accounting begins.

The Navy and DFAS-CL charged $3.6 million to America, and those transactions “may not” belong on any DON financial report. The actual accountability status of the $3.6 million is still fuzzy, and likely to remains so as if this is some bewildering encounter from, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.‘

Albeit, they thought they were slick, and rolled over a fiscal year, 2014, $3.6 million to cover their asses; their scheme may have worked if the Inspector General did not happen upon the records.

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DFAS-CL also managed to jumble an additional; $1 million in Department of the Army into Navy spending. Finding all of those receipts must have been a unique system best idealized as Sherlock Holmes cleans the garage.

For the largest chunk of this Pentagon, chump change, $57 million. The Navy via DFAS-CL went as mad as my ex-wife on payday with the checkbook and mismanaged accounting and spending across the board. Navy suspense accounts were used to facilitate  agricultural leasing, forestry, recycling and trademark programs – and out of left field Thrift Savings Plan contributions. The DoD’s 401K program . . . I wish the man would have been so gracious as to load up my 401K on the company account.

This mismanaged suspense account spending by DON is legitimately off target for any organization. The DoD, similar to a civilian business has a protocol in place for cash-flow accounting.

DoD Instruction 5010.409, requires DoD organizations to implement a comprehensive system of internal controls that provides reasonable assurance that programs are operating as intended and to evaluate the effectiveness of the
controls.”

The remaining $5 million was lost in the sauce because DFAS-CL managed to not process 1,713 transactions, from 2014.

A list of recommendations have been presented for DON and DFAS-CL to take action upon, but they’re rather weak. In a nutshell, the two departments have sixty days to respond to the IG and until well into 2017 to recook the books . . . I mean, properly remedy their accounting issues.

For now, I’m waiting for someone to allow me into the Pentagon so I can check every couch cushion in the place for DoD loose change, which would set me up for life.

 

Featured Image – Buck Clay