DOD Financial Management: The Army Faces Significant Challenges in Achieving Audit Readiness for Its Military Pay
Abstract
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service-Indianapolis (DFAS-IN) reported that fiscal year 2010 active Army military payroll totaled $46.1 billion. However, for several years, GAO and others have reported continuing deficiencies with Army military payroll processes and controls, raising questions about the validity and accuracy of reported Army military pay and whether it is auditable. The Department of Defense (DoD) has recently accelerated its Statement of Budgetary Resources audit readiness goal by 3 months to 2014 and is required to achieve audit readiness for a full set of DoD financial statements by 2017. GAO performed basic audit procedures for the Army's active duty military payroll to assess the Army's ability to do the following: (1) identify a valid population of payroll transactions, and (2) test a sample of payroll transactions for validity and accuracy. GAO reviewed applicable laws and regulations; analyzed DoD and Army policies and procedures; drew a statistical sample of payroll transactions to test their accuracy and validity; and met with DoD, DFAS-IN, Army, and Defense Manpower Data Center officials. GAO is making four recommendations to help the Army develop the processes and controls necessary to achieve financial statement audit readiness, including identifying and validating the population of military payroll transactions and obtaining and retaining necessary pay-affecting documents. The Army concurred with GAO's four recommendations and noted actions it is taking.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA557718
Entities
People
- Asif A. Khan
- Carl S. Barden
- Frederick T. Evans
- Gayle L. Fischer
- John J. Lopez
- Julia C. Matta
- Lauren S. Fassler
- Sabur O. Ibrahim
- Tulsi Bhojwani
- Wilfred B. Holloway
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office