Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa today made the following comment on the confirmation of Ashton Carter as secretary of the Department of Defense. Grassley is a long-time watchdog of Defense Department spending, including fixing the broken accounting system within the agency. He released a report on the accounting problems in November 2013.
“When I met with Dr. Carter as a nominee, I was impressed with his independent approach to the job. I emphasized the need to fix the Defense Department’s broken accounting system. The process has to be improved if we’re going to be able to identify waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon. The Defense Department is required to comply with federal government financial standards under the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990. Congress underscored the requirement in mandating that the Defense Department comply by 2017. Then-Secretary Panetta said that was a priority for him. I’ll continue to press for clean, accurate audits at the Defense Department that can hold the Pentagon bureaucracy accountable to the taxpayer.”
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