DOD Financial Management: Status of Remediation Efforts to Meet Audit Mandate , September 16 , 2025
DOD Financial Management: Status of Remediation Efforts to Meet Audit Mandate , September 16 , 2025
From the report: “The Department of Defense (DOD) is responsible for about half of the federal government’s discretionary spending and about 82 percent of the reported total physical assets. As of fiscal year 2024, DOD remains the only major federal agency that has never achieved an unmodified (“clean”) audit opinion on its financial statements. In response to the statutory mandate requiring a clean audit opinion by December 31, 2028, DOD reported taking actions to improve audit readiness and to support the timely achievement of a clean audit opinion by the mandated deadline.
Having reliable, useful, and timely financial information is important for day-today management and decision-making and for demonstrating accountability over DOD’s extensive resources. Financial statement audits have value far beyond the audit opinion: they identify vulnerabilities, improve operations, increase transparency and visibility of financial management issues, and provide a positive return on investment.
We performed this audit in connection with the statutory requirement for GAO to audit the U.S. government’s consolidated financial statements, which cover all accounts and associated activities of executive branch agencies, including DOD. This report provides information on audit approaches the independent public accountants (IPA) took, the results of DOD’s and the military services’ fiscal year 2024 financial statement audits, as well as DOD’s planned timelines for addressing key audit findings.”
Authors - Government Accountability Office (GAO)Related Resources
