I used to worked as a Department of Defense contract auditor. Basically I’d go into contractors books, and try to verify that they weren’t screwing around.
I got to see shit that made me furious. It’s why I don’t do that anymore.
My biggest shock was that when we had findings, nobody gave a shit. My spouse, who worked in my office with me, found 1.4 billion in overages, because the contractor was fudging the pay rates it was using to estimate wages. ONE POINT FOUR FUCKING BILLION.
In the real world you’d think someone would give a fuck, but not for DoD expenditures. The DMCA contracting officers are under educated, and under such pressure to buy buy buy, they can’t care. It’s not possible for them to even have a timeline to deal with it.
Add to that, the contractors have massive lobbyists, and are currently in the process of hamstringing any audit process. . .
It’s a total shit show, and I don’t doubt any shenanigans going down.
. . . I bailed. I do state audits. Folks care about $500 of misused taxpayers money. I feel like I’m doing a real job.
For some perspective and a bit of a reality check, the total federal budget in 2017 was $4.147 trillion. Be sure to remind those on the right about this when they argue that welfare is our biggest budget item.
That is unquestionably true, and I think part of what was referenced in the article as money being moved around until totally untraceable and hence unaccountable. the $21 trillion is most likely an overestimate, but the real problem is that there is fraud, overspending and poor management, but no one has the ability to actually quantitate the overage or cares to try.
I’m not an American, but I know a little of how your state works in theory and in practise.
In theory: Congress has the power of the purse, and are answerable to the electorate. One of the reasons this is a big fucking deal is that Congress is kept out of the loop in defence spending, so can’t effectively do their job. So the Electorate need to hold Congress to account. One way would be for Congress to declare that the DOD get as much money as they can account for, with independent audits. (And are willing for that to be $0 if the DOD calls the bluff.)
In practise, I’m a madman for suggesting that Congress is accountable to the Electorate, and that a majority of Congresscritters would be willing to hold the flame to the DOD’s feet.
