The Pentagon isn’t likely to meet a congressionally mandated 2017 deadline to be audit-ready. All other federal agencies are audited annually, in accordance with a 1990 law, and with rare exceptions, they pass every year.
The Pentagon alone has never been audited, leaving roughly $8.5 trillion in taxpayer dollars unaccounted for since 1996, the first year it was supposed to be audited.
Q: What, specifically, is needed to fix it?
A: Congress would have to pass laws that imposed sanctions on the Defense Department if it didn’t straighten out its books. Current and former defense officials and lawmakers say a comprehensive fix likely also would require explicit pressure from the president - and voters.
[source online: www.reuters.com/investigates/pentagon]