{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221043304/http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=47632", "Report Shows Possible Audit Misconduct at Defense Department", "2013-12-02", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "IA", "Charles Grassley", "G000386", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "It appears that the Defense Department\u2019s flagship accounting agency, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), is suffering its own audit woes, despite receiving clean bills of health on its own financial statements from an outside qualified government auditor.\u00a0 Adding insult to injury, the Office of the Inspector General (IG), an office that is supposed to be independent and tasked with conducting oversight of the Defense Department and the agencies within the department, seems to have turned a blind eye to the problems within the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.\u00a0 It looks like the IG buckled under pressure from the DFAS when attempting to conduct oversight of the troubled agency\u2019s financial statements.\u00a0 Because of all the bungling and ethical missteps on these audits, the independence and integrity of the Inspector General\u2019s audit process may have been compromised. It came to my attention in April 2012, when I began receiving allegations of misconduct regarding the Defense Finance and Accounting Service opinion audits.\u00a0 My office then initiated a review of official records of those audits with the guidance of Certified Public Accounting-qualified government auditors.\u00a0 My findings are outlined in a letter and staff oversight report that I forwarded on Nov. 22 to both Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Defense Department Inspector General Jon Rymer. Discoveries in documents, when coupled with verbal and written interviews of knowledgeable officials, tell the story of what really happened.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not a pretty picture.\u00a0 If this snapshot is characteristic of the work being produced by that office, we have a problem. Audits are a primary oversight tool for rooting out fraud and waste in the government.\u00a0 To protect taxpayers, these government audits must be as good as they can be.\u00a0 Effective audit reporting is the key to pinpointing long-standing accounting deficiencies that allow waste and theft to go undetected and unchecked.\u00a0 Hard-hitting audits should help senior management apply mandated cuts where they are needed most.\u00a0 But, as long as the Inspector General\u2019s audit shop, the main check on DFAS, remains weak and ineffective, the probability of rooting out much fraud and waste during spending cuts under sequestration is very low.\u00a0 As a result of the Inspector General Office\u2019s turning its head, instead of helping to identify places to save money, it looks like the Defense Finance and Accounting Service may be free and clear in trying to hide its own problems by pretending its books are in order and then running roughshod over anybody who dares to question its \u201cclean\u201d audit. Click here to see a summary of the findings and recommendations in the staff oversight report.\u00a0 Click here to see the report.\n\u00a0\nClick here to read a news story written by McClatchy reporters Jim Rosen and Marisa Taylor about my report and the problems within the Defense Finance and Accounting Service: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/22/209356/pentagons-bosses-thwart-accurate.html", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140221043304/http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=47632"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6335390973836184, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}