The Government Accountability Office is unable to audit Department of Defense spending because of poor accounting by the DoD [1] [2]. This has been the case for years (17 or more), even though the DoD is the third-largest cost to the federal government (21% of the budget) [2].
Fixing this may take another $1B and until 2017, and this keeps getting pushed back [3]. This is unacceptable: we cannot wait this long for better accounting.
Poor accounting enables corruption. We must hold tax-funded spending to higher standards.
[1] http://www.gao.gov/press/consolidatedfinreport121505.html
[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/gao-audit-federal-government-de...
[3] http://www.publicintegrity.org/2011/10/13/7063/pentagons-accounting-sham...