Fluid Deadline?

Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member John McCain (R-AZ) yesterday queried a senior defense official about the prospects of Pentagon leaders meeting their target of achieving a clean financial audit for the entire Defense Department by 2017.

"Do you think they'll make that?" he asked Elizabeth McGrath at her nomination hearing to become DOD's deputy chief chief management officer. McGrath currently serves as the assistant deputy CMO and DOD's performance improvement officer.

McGrath apparently was in no mood to give a yes-or-no answer: "I think that each year they'll make progress against that goal," she replied, noting renewed leadership attention to the issue would result in a "higher probability" of meeting the deadline.

McCain tried to draw her out again. "So you think we'll make the goal?" he asked.

"I think that they will make progress against the goal," McGrath responded. "I think time will tell as to whether or not they are able to hit the 2017 goal." Later, she described the target deadline as an "aggressive goal."

Clean audit opinions essentially are proof that an organization's financial books are balanced and that all money flows are traceable. DOD currently achieves clean audits for roughly half of its $3.8 trillion in combined assets and liabilities, according to Pentagon data.