Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is leading a bipartisan effort to impose a stick-and-carrot method of getting the Department of Defense to clean up its books and crack down on defense contractors.

 

The proposed legislation would punish the Defense Department if it does not meet deadlines for conducting proper internal audits of projects produced by contractors.

 

The bill also would prevent the Pentagon from producing and deploying new weapons systems if the audits are not concluded by 2017.

 

To offer incentives to meet the 2017 deadline, the plan would reward agencies by giving defense planners more control over their budgets.

 

Coburn’s bill comes at a time when the Pentagon has allowed its shoddy accounting programs to waste $8 billion in cost overruns. Most of the armed services have lagged behind in overhauling their accounting systems, with the U.S. Army being the worst offender by pushing back its deadline from 2004 to 2016.

 

Cosponsoring the legislation are Republican Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, John Cornyn of Texas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, plus Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

To Learn More:

Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Demands Better Pentagon Auditing (by Zach Toombs, iWatch News)

Pentagon Financial Books in Disarray (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Pentagon Hires Contractors to Regulate Contractors (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)