Remember when just before 9/11 the Pentagon said they couldnβt account for $2.4 Trillion in tax payers money? They simply said βwe donβt know where it wentβπ€·πΌββοΈ.
Sorry about the quality itβs the best I could find. Nonetheless this should not be forgotten. https://t.co/GXa7fqPPzr
Video Transcript AI Summary
Pentagon's Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, declared war on the Pentagon bureaucracy, stating that wasted money poses a serious threat. However, after the events of 9/11, the focus shifted to funding the war on terrorism, and the issue of wasteful spending was forgotten. The military already struggles to account for 25% of its expenses, which amounts to $2.3 trillion. A whistleblower, Jim Minery, discovered $1 million missing from a defense agency's balance sheets but faced resistance when trying to investigate. The Pentagon's inspector general confirmed some of Minery's allegations but couldn't prove manipulation of financial statements. The problem of accounting games and cooked books persists, according to longtime Pentagon employee, c Spinney. Without proper oversight, billions of dollars could be saved.
Speaker 0: Pentagon, the day before 911, Secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war, not on foreign terrorists.
Speaker 1: The adversary is closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy.
Speaker 0: He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.
Speaker 1: In fact, it could be said that it's a matter of life and death.
Speaker 0: Rumsfeld promised change, but the next day, the world changed.
Speaker 1: I don't need to go.
Speaker 0: And in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, The war on waste seems to have been forgotten.
Speaker 2: My o three budget calls for more than $48,000,000,000 in new defense spending.
Speaker 0: More money for the Pentagon when its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25% of what it already spends.
Speaker 1: According to some estimates, we cannot track $2,300,000,000,000
Speaker 0: in transactions. 2.3 trillion With a t, that's $8,000 for every man, woman, and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, Consider the case of 1 military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere 300,000,000.
Speaker 3: We know it's gone, But we don't know what they're spending on.
Speaker 0: Jim Minery, a former marine turned whistleblower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the 1,000,000 he noticed were missing from one defense agency's balance sheets. Minery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.
Speaker 3: Director looked at me and he says, why do you care about this stuff? It took me aback, you know. My supervisor asked me why I care about doing a good job. So
Speaker 0: He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.
Speaker 3: They gotta cover it up. That's where the corruption comes in. They've gotta cover up the fact that they can't do the job.
Speaker 0: The Pentagon's inspector general partially substantiated several of MINARI's allegations but could not prove officials tried to manipulate the financial statements. 20 years ago, Pentagon employee, c Spinney made headlines exposing what he calls the accounting games. He's still there. And although he does not speak for the Pentagon, he believes the problem has gotten worse.
Speaker 2: Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year after year.
Speaker 0: Retired vice admiral Jack Shanahan commanded the Navy's 2nd fleet, The first time Donald Rumsfeld served as defense secretary.
Speaker 4: With good financial oversight, We could find $48,000,000,000 in whose change in that building without having to hit the taxpayers.
Speaker 0: In the 2.5 minutes since this report began, The Pentagon has spent nearly $2,000,000 and it may never know where 25% of those tax dollars went.
