Government and Politics

Audit Documents Government's Ineptitude

The General Accounting Office's attempted 1997 audit of the federal government revealed the government's books were in such a mess that the GAO couldn't form an opinion. The acting head of the GAO said the government "cannot properly account for and report billions of dollars of property, equipment, materials and supplies."

It was the GAO's first-ever all-government audit.

Some figures from the section of the audit devoted to the Defense Department illustrate the extent of the chaos:

  • Actual quantities of goods differed from the Navy's inventory records 23 percent of the time.

  • The Navy valued 49 buildings at one site at either zero or $1 in value -- although the GAO priced them at a total of $25 million.

  • Fire trucks worth $470,000 each were listed as worth $1.03 each in an Air Force financial statement.

  • Out of 79 inactive Navy service craft, six could not be located.

Then there were the number of extra tanks one Army unit says it has, which differed by 220 from the number carried in the Army's central records.

Source: Editorial, "The Voracious Federal Beast Exposed," Investor's Business Daily, June 16, 1998.

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