Marine Corps Becomes First Service to Pass Inspector General Audit

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2013 – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel released a statement following the first successful audit of a military service. The U.S. Marine Corps was granted an unqualified favorable audit for its current-year budget.

Hagel’s statement reads as follows:

Last Friday, the United States Marine Corps became the first military service to successfully undergo an audit when the DOD Inspector General granted it an unqualified, favorable audit opinion for its current-year budget statement. I want to congratulate the Marine Corps and the Department of the Navy on this significant achievement.

This was the first audit of its kind for any of our armed services. Along with the progress some DOD agencies have made in generating auditable financial statements, this development marks an important milestone on the path to achieving greater accountability in our financial operations and more effective management of the defense enterprise writ large. There is more work to do in preparing our other military services to pass an audit, but I remain fully committed to making the Pentagon fully audit-ready by 2017.