DOD Receives Golden Fleece Award For Not Completing a Financial Audit

The Golden Fleece Award

ARRA News Service: Congressman French Hill (R-AR) has named the Department of Defense (DoD) as the latest winner of the Golden Fleece award for having never conducted a financial audit. An annual financial audit by each federal agency, including DoD, is required by the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990.

Further, DoD financial management has been on the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) “High Risk List” since 1995, and there have been many reports on financial mismanagement and cost overruns at the DoD.

“As a former banker and businessman, it is concerning to me that our largest federally funded agency has never conducted a financial audit,” said Rep. Hill. “The DoD represents more than 50 percent of the nation’s discretionary budget. I believe conducting its first financial audit will help the DoD identify savings and efficiencies, as well as identify mismanaged funds that can be redirected and put to better use for our men and women and uniform.”

About the Golden Fleece Award
Every year, Congress appropriates trillions of dollars to fund the federal government, and every year the federal government wastes portions of these funds in unconscionable ways. As a Member of Congress, and as a taxpayer, this frustrates me to no end. In an attempt to increase accountability for every single government program, Congressman Hill decided to bring back the Golden Fleece Award.

Originally introduced by Democratic U.S. Senator from Wisconsin William Proxmire in March 1975, the Golden Fleece Award was a monthly bulletin on the most frivolous and wasteful uses of hardworking taxpayers’ dollars. The Golden Fleece Award became a staple in the U.S. Senate during this time, and Senator Robert Byrd once stated that the awards were “as much a part of the Senate as quorum calls and filibusters.”

In reviving this idea, the Golden Fleece Award will again have the opportunity to serve as an important reminder to taxpayers about the need for necessary, commonsense reforms to our federal spending.

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Tags: Rep. French Hill, R-AR, awards, Golden Fleece Award,, Department of Defense, DOD, Not Completing a Financial Audit, cost overruns, financial mismanagement  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!