The U.S. Marine Corps passed a full financial audit for the first time, announcing that its fiscal 2023 financial audit received an “unmodified audit opinion” after a rigorous two-year review. This milestone comes after almost two decades of trying to prepare the Corps’ records and several failed audits along the way.
During this two-year audit, the Marine Corps had independent third-party auditors from Ernst and Young vet the value of all its assets listed on financial statements. The audit team made more than 70 site visits in the U.S. and around the world, checking assets such as land, buildings, military equipment, spare parts, and ammunition.
Lt. Gen. James Adams stated that one area of focus for improvement is automating processes to avoid human errors. The audit now makes future ones more manageable, as subsequent audits will only cover “from this point forward,” assuming past information is accurate.
The Marine Corps began conducting full financial statement audits in 2017 and passed its 2023 audit to the highest standards. Lessons learned from this successful audit can be shared with the rest of the department to help accelerate their progress. Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord commended the Marine Corps’ leadership and effort, emphasizing the focus on the Marines as a test case for the department and larger services.
