The Department of Defense is still struggling to account for its finances. The department once again failed its annual audit into its expenditures and assets. This markets the seventh straight year of failures. The Department of Defense has not passed one of the mandatory audits since they were implemented in 2018.

Michael McCord, Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer, announced the latest failure on Friday, Nov. 15, saying the result was “expected.” According to McCord, the overall audit earned a “disclaimer of opinion,” meaning that the Department of Defense failed to provide enough information for auditors to reach a precise and accurate verdict on the finances. In fact, of the 28 separate entities audited, 15 of them all received disclaimers. 

Despite a lack of information to get the full picture, hundreds of people worked to get an understanding of where the military is financially. The process involved approximately 1,700 independent auditors and cost $178 million. That itself is more efficient than last year, which saw 1,600 auditors and cost $187 million. This year’s process examined $4.1 trillion in assets and $4.3 trillion in liabilities. Of the 28 entities audited (not counting those that received disclaimers), nine received unqualified opinions (meaning they had “clean” audits), one had a qualified opinion and three are pending.

The good news is that one more entity earned a clean audit than last year, bringing the total to nine. That’s still less than a third of the overall entities being examined. Despite that, McCord said that the Department of Defense is making progress.