Marine Corps achieves clean audit for second consecutive year

The Marine Corps has passed its fiscal year 2024 audit, receiving an "unmodified" opinion from independent auditors who reviewed the service's accounting for accuracy, completion and compliance with federal regulations, the service announced today.

The Marine Corps has now passed its audit for the second year in a row after becoming the first service branch to do so in FY-23. The Marine Corps published its FY-24 agency financial report today, including this year’s audit results.

“Passing a second annual audit demonstrates our commitment to being good stewards of our nation’s tax dollars and is part of how we distinguish ourselves as a professional warfighting organization,” Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said in a statement included in the release. “Make no mistake, passing an audit makes us more ready to fight when our nation calls.”

The Marine Corps remains the only military service branch to achieve a clean audit to date. In November, the Defense Department announced it had failed for a seventh straight year.

The Pentagon began auditing itself in 2018, becoming the last federal department to do so after Congress mandated the practice in 1990.

Since passing in FY-23, the Marine Corps has taken additional steps to “stabilize” its accounting systems, today’s notice states. Still, the auditor’s report includes seven “material weaknesses,” or areas for the Marine Corps to improve upon going forward, the announcement notes.

The service aims to fix these weak points through “systems improvement and internal controls,” the notice continues.

“By repeating and refining this process, the Corps aims to develop a more fluid and efficient enterprise resource planning system, ultimately positioning itself for long-term mission success and accountability,” the notice continues.