TITLE: ‘This was not a surprise’: Pentagon again fails annual audit of $3.8 trillion in military assets
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2023-11-15/pentagon-failed-audit-shutdown-funding-12064619.html
EXCERPT: The Pentagon has never passed the yearly audit. The first audit only became federally required in 2018 and the department has been trying to pass them ever since. The 2022 audit also earned an opinion of disclaimer and McCord said a year ago that he was disappointed that report didn’t show more progress. He seemed more pleased with the audit progress this time.
“We remain a trusted institution, and we recognize that we have the obligation to do everything to maintain that trust,” he said. “We have made a lot of progress, and I look forward to our continued improvement.”
The Defense Department continues to be the only Cabinet-level department that’s never earned a clean financial report. Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office said there are two reasons for that: The Pentagon isn’t managing its financial systems properly and isn’t giving the necessary guidance to make them effective.
“DOD spends billions of dollars each year on its business and financial systems. However, its business systems modernization and financial management efforts have been on GAO’s High Risk List since 1995,” the GAO report concluded in March. “These high-risk areas remain obstacles to DOD’s efforts to achieve [a clean] audit.”
The GAO’s High Risk List, which is updated at the start of every new Congress, identifies federal programs that are especially susceptible to fraud, abuse, mismanagement and waste.
TITLE: Former Navy Civilian Employee and Defense Contractor Indicted in Bribery Scheme
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/former-navy-civilian-employee-and-defense-contractor-indicted-bribery-scheme
EXCERPT: According to the indictment, Phillip Flores, owner of Intellipeak Solutions, bribed James Soriano, the former employee, with free dinners at San Diego restaurants including De Medici Cucina, the University Club and Bluewater Boathouse Grill and Ruth’s Chris in Virginia as well as tickets to the 2018 World Series and the 2019 Super Bowl.
In return, Soriano allowed Flores to draft procurement documents for various contracts, including contracts for which Flores and Intellipeak ostensibly were in competition with others. Soriano also steered millions of dollars in contracts to Intellipeak that Flores subcontracted to others, including contractors ineligible to receive the contracts.
To conceal their activity, Soriano falsified government paperwork and Flores falsely affirmed that Intellipeak had completed 51 percent of the work on awarded contracts when the company had not. On October 29, 2019, in a recorded call, Flores coached Soriano to be “very careful” about how he answered questions from federal agents and to falsely say contractors drafting government documents was “market research.”
“The announced indictment is a critical first step in holding all three parties accountable for their alleged criminal efforts to enrich themselves financially by subverting the integrity of the government’s acquisition process through the improper awarding or promise of awarding lucrative contracts,” said Bryan D. Denny, Special Agent in Charge for the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Western Field Office. “DCIS remains committed to working jointly with the United States Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners to investigate and deter public corruption within the Department of Defense.”
“Bribery and procurement fraud within the Department of the Navy threatens warfighter safety and perpetuates unfair contracting practices that negatively affect honest businesses,” said Special Agent in Charge Greg Gross of the NCIS Economic Crimes Field Office. “NCIS and our partners remain committed to exposing those who abuse the DON procurement process for personal gain.”
TITLE: American Arms Makers, Cashing in on Conflict
https://tomdispatch.com/good-times-for-the-military-industrial-complex/
EXCERPT: Over the years, far from being a reliable arsenal of democracy, American arms manufacturers have often helped undermine democracy globally, while enabling ever greater repression and conflict — a fact largely ignored in recent mainstream coverage of the industry. For example, in a 2022 report for the Quincy Institute, I noted that, of the 46 then-active conflicts globally, 34 involved one or more parties armed by the United States. In some cases, American arms supplies were modest, but in many other conflicts such weaponry was central to the military capabilities of one or more of the warring parties.
Nor do such weapons sales promote democracy over autocracy, a watchword of the Biden administration’s approach to foreign policy. In 2021, the most recent year for which full statistics are available, the U.S. armed 31 nations that Freedom House, a non-profit that tracks global trends in democracy, political freedom, and human rights, designated as “not free.”
The most egregious recent example in which the American arms industry is distinctly culpable when it comes to staggering numbers of civilian deaths would be the Saudi Arabian/United Arab Emirates (UAE)-led coalition’s intervention in Yemen, which began in March 2015 and has yet to truly end. Although the active military part of the conflict is now in relative abeyance, a partial blockade of that country continues to cause needless suffering for millions of Yemenis. Between bombing, fighting on the ground, and the impact of that blockade, there have been nearly 400,000 casualties. Saudi air strikes, using American-produced planes and weaponry, caused the bulk of civilian deaths from direct military action.
Congress did make unprecedented efforts to block specific arms sales to Saudi Arabia and rein in the American role in the conflict via a War Powers Resolution, only to see legislation vetoed by President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, bombs provided by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin were routinely used to target civilians, destroying residential neighborhoods, factories, hospitals, a wedding, and even a school bus.
When questioned about whether they feel any responsibility for how their weapons have been used, arms companies generally pose as passive bystanders, arguing that all they’re doing is following policies made in Washington. At the height of the Yemen war, Amnesty International asked firms that were supplying military equipment and services to the Saudi/UAE coalition whether they were ensuring that their weaponry wouldn’t be used for egregious human rights abuses. Lockheed Martin typically offered a robotic response, asserting that “defense exports are regulated by the U.S. government and approved by both the Executive Branch and Congress to ensure that they support U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives.” Raytheon simply stated that its sales “of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia have been and remain in compliance with U.S. law.”