Over the weekend, the Pentagon announced that “DOD’s 2024 Audit Shows Progress Toward 2028 Goals.” While true, it would also be fair to say that the Pentagon just failed its 7^th straight audit and is not on track to achieve a clean opinion by 2028. That’s a big problem for an agency that’s budget is rapidly approaching $1 trillion and that manages some $4.1 trillion in assets and $4.3 trillion in liabilities.

Last year, when the Pentagon failed its 6^th audit, seven out of 29 audit components received unmodified opinions, meaning they passed. One component received a qualified opinion, meaning its financial statements contained errors or omissions, and three others were still pending (two of which later passed). The 18 other components of the Pentagon’s audit received disclaimers of opinion, suggesting auditors either lacked access to needed information, found the information provided unclear or unreliable, detected material misstatements, or deemed financial records too complex to decipher. In layman’s terms, 18 of 29 components failed the audit.

This year, there were only 28 components to audit, as Special Operations Command was folded into the consolidated audit. Of the 28, nine received unmodified opinions, one received a qualified opinion, 15 received disclaimers of opinion, and three are still pending (the Marine Corps, the Defense Logistics Agency’s National Defense Stockpile Transaction Fund, and the Office of Inspector General). According to Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord, two of those pending components are expected to pass. If that occurs, 11 of 28 components will have passed, compared to 9 out of 29 last year. The Pentagon also highlighted that it successfully addressed a variety of material weaknesses across the agency that contribute to poor audit performances.

While that progress is welcome, it’s also painfully slow for an agency that now has a congressional mandate to pass a clean audit by 2028.

To his credit, speaking to the need to accelerate progress, McCord admitted, “if you draw a trend line… back from when we started, from year one to year seven, I don’t think it’s going to show you’re getting there in time if you don’t continue to pick up the pace.”

While Congress mandated the 2028 goal in the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), it did not establish any accountability mechanisms for the Pentagon should it fail to achieve that goal. But it could, and should, if it hopes to spur the accelerated pace of progress McCord says the agency needs.

The bipartisan Audit the Pentagon Act, which currently has 12 sponsors in the Senate and 29 in the House, would require each component of the Pentagon to receive a clean audit opinion or else forfeit between 0.5 and 1 percent of its budget to the Treasury Department for deficit reduction. These bills should be reintroduced in the next Congress, and lawmakers concerned with the fiscal crisis facing our nation should rush to cosponsor it.

Goals are good, but real accountability is better, and it’s just what the Pentagon needs to get its act together and end the embarrassment that comes with being the only government agency that can’t pass an audit. More importantly, the fiscal and national security benefits that will come with the Pentagon finally being able to account for all of its assets are literally immeasurable and will continue to be until it gets its financial house in order. Congress should help push it over the finish line.