Remediating DOD's Audit Findings - A Long-Term View

The Department of Defense achieved a critical milestone in November 2018: undergoing its first full financial statement audit and meeting a key congressional mandate. DOD did not expect to receive an opinion on its financial statements. The DOD Comptroller has remarked that implementing all the process and system changes necessary to pass the audit will take time and recognizes the issuance of notices of findings and recommendations (NFR) as a major outcome of the audit. The department’s success in improving its financial management and audit readiness will be measured by progress in remediating deficiencies noted in the NFRs.

• Recall DOD’s current efforts and plans for: remediating audit findings, prioritizing corrective actions, and other approaches to providing reliable data for decision making.
• Indicate DOD's plans to prepare auditable financial statements and for addressing the NFRs.
• Estimate how the remediation activity will impact future audits.
• Estimate the length of time before the remediation impacts DOD’s financial management operation and DOD’s mission.