On December 19, local time, we learned that the US Department of Defense has failed to pass the annual financial audit for the eighth year in a row. The audit revealed that the Department of Defense has assets of about 4.65 trillion US dollars and liabilities of about 4.73 trillion US dollars. In fiscal year 2025, auditors discovered 26 major internal control flaws and 2 major flaws, which could result in significant misstatement of financial reports. Defense Secretary Hegseth said that the Department of Defense is unable to resolve long-standing problems through uncontrolled spending. According to the Defense Department's chief financial officer, the department's goal is to achieve an unqualified audit opinion by 2028. Since the first audit in 2018, the US Department of Defense is still the only cabinet-level agency that has yet to obtain a “clean audit report.”

On December 19, local time, we learned that the US Department of Defense has failed to pass the annual financial audit for the eighth year in a row. The audit revealed that the Department of Defense has assets of about 4.65 trillion US dollars and liabilities of about 4.73 trillion US dollars. In fiscal year 2025, auditors discovered 26 major internal control flaws and 2 major flaws, which could result in significant misstatement of financial reports. Defense Secretary Hegseth said that the Department of Defense is unable to resolve long-standing problems through uncontrolled spending. According to the Defense Department's chief financial officer, the department's goal is to achieve an unqualified audit opinion by 2028. Since the first audit in 2018, the US Department of Defense is still the only cabinet-level agency that has yet to obtain a “clean audit report.”