Sponsored by Bertin Exensor
www.exensor.com
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
15 Nov 24. Department of Defense Completes Seventh Consecutive Department-Wide Financial Statement Audit.The Department of Defense (DoD) released the results of its seventh annual Department-wide financial statement audit today, which again resulted in a disclaimer of opinion. “Despite the disclaimer of opinion, which was expected, the Department has turned a corner in its understanding of the depth and breadth of its challenges,” said Michael McCord, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer. “Momentum is on our side, and throughout the Department there is strong commitment—and belief in our ability—to achieve an unmodified audit opinion.”
Mr. McCord attributes DoD’s audit momentum to the tone-at-the-top, which he has emphasized, alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks. “The path forward is clear,” McCord continued, “significant work remains and challenges lie ahead, but our annual audit continues to be a catalyst for Department-wide financial management reform, resulting in greater financial integrity, transparency, and better-supported warfighters.”
Teams of independent public accountants and the DoD Office of Inspector General closely examined the financial statements of the Department and its reporting entities. Of the 28 reporting entities undergoing standalone financial statement audits, 9 received an unmodified audit opinion, 1 received a qualified opinion, 15 received disclaimers, and 3 opinions remain pending. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) achieved an unmodified audit opinion in only its second year under standalone audit. The fiscal year (FY) 2023 U.S. Marine Corps’ unmodified opinion and the FY 2024 DTRA unmodified opinion are the first new financial statement opinions since FY 2020. The Department is firmly committed and is taking actions to achieve an unmodified audit opinion on its financial statements by December 31, 2028, as mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024.
In FY 2024, the Department made progress in improving its financial management practices and increasing transparency, closing the DoD-wide Contingent Legal Liabilities material weakness. The Department sustained the momentum gained in FY 2023 in resolving its Fund Balance with Treasury material weakness, a Secretary of Defense DoD-wide audit priority area. Eight DoD reporting entities closed or downgraded their Fund Balance with Treasury material weakness: Department of the Army General Fund, Department of the Navy Working Capital Fund, Department of Air Force Working Capital Fund, Defense Information Systems Agency General Fund and Working Capital Fund, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. In addition to existing reporting entities with favorable audit opinions, DoD has closed or downgraded 12 FBWT material weaknesses over the last two fiscal years, totaling $703 billion, or 82% of the $856 billion DoD-wide balance. Of that the Military Departments represent $657 billion, or 78% of the total. Additionally, the Department of the Army General Fund and Working Capital Fund both closed their Entity Level Controls – Enterprise Responsibilities material weaknesses, and Army Working Capital Fund downgraded its Property, Plant and Equipment – General
Equipment, Property, Plant and Equipment Real Property and Environmental Disposal and Liabilities material weaknesses; the Air Force General Fund downgraded its Military Equipment material weakness; the Defense Information Systems Agency General Fund closed its Financial Reporting material weakness; the Defense Health Program closed its Stockpile Materials material weakness and downgraded its Information Systems material weakness; the Defense Intelligence Agency downgraded its Financial IT Controls material weakness, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Civil Works downgraded its Construction In Progress – Property, Plant and Equipment material weakness.
The Department also demonstrated improvements in system controls, completing 27 system examinations and achieving 17 unmodified and 8 qualified opinions; 2 examinations were adverse. The FY 2024 25 favorable opinions represent 93% of the examination opinions, an increase from the FY 2021 81% favorable examination opinions. Results of system examinations are used by other auditors, which reduces duplicative testing.
The Department saw a return on investment across areas essential for achieving and sustaining an unmodified opinion: Workforce Modernization, Business Operations, Quality Decision-Making, Reliable Networks, and Enhanced Public Confidence. A recent Government Accountability Office report, “DOD Has Identified Benefits of Financial Statement Audits and Could Expand Its Monitoring,” cited operational benefits of the audits, including improvements to financial systems and data, mitigation of cybersecurity risks, enhanced visibility over assets and inventory, and more efficient processes, and noted that additional outcomes are anticipated.
For example, in FY 2024, the Department used Advana for new contingency reporting, including support to Haiti, tracking the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, and hurricane response; the Department of the Air Force has delivered 76 bots saving 577,000 labor hours and improving the efficiency of 76 business processes; the Department of the Army’s new Integrated Personnel and Pay System consolidates information from over 50 legacy systems and promotes secure and consistent processes and data; and the Department of the Navy further consolidated its systems by migrating 9 major commands, decommissioning 11 systems, and transitioning 3 Budget Submitting Offices to Navy ERP, its enterprise resource planning system.
“The Department continues to need the sustained investment, senior leadership commitment, and the support of our partners in Congress, federal regulators, the audit community, and our military and civilian personnel to accomplish its audit goals,” added McCord. “An unmodified audit opinion has always been the Department’s primary financial management goal, and with their help, I know it is achievable.”
For more information, please see the Department’s Agency Financial Report and links to DoD Component Agency Financial Reports at https://comptroller.defense.gov/odcfo/afr/.(Source: U.S. DoD)
14 Nov 24. Department of Defense Releases the Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). This week the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence delivered to Congress the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office’s Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena as required by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, as amended by the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2023.
Analyzing and understanding the potential threats posed by UAP is an ongoing collaborative effort involving many departments and agencies, and the department thanks the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other contributing departments and agencies for their collaborative efforts to produce this report.
The safety of our service personnel, our bases and installations, and the protection of U.S. operations security on land, in the skies, seas, and space are paramount. We take reports of incursions into our designated space, land, sea, or airspaces seriously and examine each one.
The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office is leading DOD’s efforts, in coordination with ODNI and other government agencies, to document, analyze, and when possible, resolve UAP reports using a rigorous scientific framework and a data-driven approach. This year’s UAP report covers UAP reports from May 1, 2023, to June 1, 2024, as well as any UAP report from previous time periods that were not included in an earlier report. AARO received 757 UAP reports during this period; 485 of these reports featured UAP incidents that occurred during the reporting period. The remaining 272 reports featured UAP incidents that occurred between 2021 and 2022 but were not reported to AARO until this reporting period and consequently were not included in previous annual UAP reports. This brought the total cases that AARO has been reviewing to over 1,600 as of June 1, 2024.
You can find the unclassified version of the annual UAP report here.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://media.defense.gov/2024/Nov/14/2003583603/-1/-1/0/FY24-CONSOLIDATED-ANNUAL-REPORT-ON-UAP-508.PDF
14 Nov 24. Trump’s team drawing up list of Pentagon officers to fire.
- Summary
- Plan potentially includes firing Joint Chiefs of Staff, including Milley appointees
- Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary pick, supports Pentagon leadership overhaul
- Some US officials doubt feasibility of mass firings at a time of global turmoil
Members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team are drawing up a list of military officers to be fired, potentially to include the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two sources said, in what would be an unprecedented shakeup at the Pentagon.
The planning for the firings is at an early stage after Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory and could change as Trump’s administration takes shape, said the sources, who are familiar with the Trump transition and requested anonymity to speak candidly about the plans. One of the sources questioned the feasibility of a mass firing at the Pentagon.
It was also unclear if Trump himself would endorse the plan, although in the past he has railed extensively against defense leaders who have criticized him. Trump has also spoken during the campaign of [USN:L1N3MD1PE TEXT:“firing “woke” generals”] and those responsible for the troubled 2021 pullout from Afghanistan.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The second source said the incoming administration would likely focus on U.S. military officers seen as connected to Mark Milley, Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Milley was quoted in the book “War” by Bob Woodward, which was published last month, calling Trump “fascist to the core” and Trump’s allies have targeted him for perceived disloyalty to the former president.
“Every single person that was elevated and appointed by Milley will be gone,” the second source said.
“There’s a very detailed list of everybody that was affiliated with Milley. And they will all be gone.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff include the highest ranking officers in the U.S. military and comprise the heads of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, National Guard and Space Force.
The disclosure of plans to fire senior leaders of the U.S. armed forces comes a day after Trump [USN:S0N3M808W TEXT:“picked as his defense secretary Pete Hegseth”], a Fox News commentator and veteran who has signaled a willingness to clean house at the Pentagon.
“The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired,” Hegseth said in his 2024 book “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.”
It is unclear if Hegseth’s lack of management experience could complicate his Senate confirmation and if a more traditional alternative for the position would carry out such sweeping dismissals.
GENERAL BROWN TO BE AMONG THE FIRST FIRED
Hegseth has also taken aim at Milley’s successor, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, asking whether he would have gotten the job if he were not Black.
“Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt – which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter,” he wrote.
The first source familiar with the transition planning said Brown would be among the many officers to leave.
“The chiefs of the Joint Chiefs and all the vice chiefs will be fired immediately,” the source said, before noting that this was still only early planning.
Some current and former U.S. officials have played down the possibility of such a major shakeup, saying it would be unnecessary and disruptive at a time of global turmoil with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The first source said that it would be difficult bureaucratically to fire and replace a large swath of senior U.S. military officials, suggesting the planning could be bluster and posturing by Trump allies.
But the second source suggested the Trump camp believed the Joint Chiefs of Staff needed to shrink due to perceived bureaucratic over-reach.
Such cuts could be endured in an organization the scale of the U.S. military, the source said.
“These people are not irreplaceable. They are very replaceable. And then the other thing too is there is no shortage of people that will step up,” the source said.
“In World War Two, we were very rapidly appointing people in their 30s or people competent to be generals. And you know what? We won the war.”
(Source: Reuters)
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Founded in 1987, Exensor Technology is a world leading supplier of Networked Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) Systems providing tailored sensor solutions to customers all over the world. From our Headquarters in Lund Sweden, our centre of expertise in Network Communications at (Source: U.S. DoD)
outside of Basingstoke UK, we design, develop and produce latest state of the art rugged UGS solutions at the highest quality to meet the most stringent demands of our customers. Our systems are in operation and used in a wide number of Military as well as Homeland Security applications worldwide. The modular nature of the system ensures any external sensor can be integrated, providing the user with a fully meshed “silent” network capable of self-healing. Exensor Technology will continue to lead the field in UGS technology, provide our customers with excellent customer service and a bespoke package able to meet every need. A CNIM Group Company
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–