**GAO-09-373**                      Published: May 06, 2009. Publicly Released: May 06, 2009.                  

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## Highlights

Since the first financial statement audit was attempted at a major Department of Defense (DOD) component over 20 years ago, GAO and DOD auditors have continued to report significant weaknesses in the department's ability to provide timely, reliable, consistent, and accurate information for management analysis, decision-making, and reporting. DOD has undertaken a number of initiatives over the years, such as the Financial Improvement Initiative in 2003, to improve the department's business operations, including financial management, and achieve clean financial statement audit opinions. However, these initiatives have met with limited success. In 2005, the DOD Comptroller established the DOD Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) Directorate to manage DOD-wide financial improvement efforts and to integrate those efforts with transformation activities, such as those outlined in the Enterprise Transition Plan, across the department. The components report accomplishments and progress against planned corrective actions to the FIAR Directorate for reporting in the FIAR Plan. Congress asked GAO to analyze the department's FIAR Plan to identify any areas where improvements are needed to enhance the plan's effectiveness as a management tool for guiding, monitoring, and reporting on the department's efforts to identify and resolve its financial management weaknesses and achieve financial statement auditability.

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## Topics

National Defense

AccountabilityAgency evaluationAudit oversightAudit reportsDefense auditsDefense capabilitiesDefense economic analysisFinancial disclosureFinancial managementFinancial management systemsFinancial recordsFinancial statement auditsFinancial statementsFund auditsInternal auditsInternal controlsReporting requirementsStrategic planningSystems compatibilityCorrective actionExecutive agency oversight