"... All Four Feet and their Snout in the Trough..."

The Senate Budget Committee held a hearing Wednesday on the DoD-wide financial audit that is now just getting underway. You can view that hearing here as well as download prepared testimony by the two DoD witnesses.

One of the notable quotes from the hearing came from Sen Kennedy, Louisiana. After the DoD representatives admitted that they didn't have an accurate tally of the number of Government contractors or the value of contracts, Sen Kennedy stated "We've got some hogs who have all four feet and their snout in the trough and we got to find out who they are, gentlemen". That was really besides the point of the hearing but entertaining nevertheless.

The DoD audit is a massive undertaking involving 1,200 auditors, 24 stand-alone audits and one over-arching audit. It is costing $367 million and the services have set aside $550 million to "fix" any problems that might arise. Of course, DoD anticipates that many issues will arise and does not expect to get a "clean" audit report this year. It might take 10 years to get a clean audit.

The DoD witnesses promised transparency throughout the process, not only to Congressional members but to the public as well. Any findings or issues raised during the audit process will be publicly available on a website dedicated to that purpose. Its not set up yet so we cannot link to it but we will when it goes live. We will also monitor the interim findings and report on matters that might be of interest to Government contractors.