A mere 30 years after major federal agencies were required to complete an audit, and a mere six years since the Pentagon first managed to complete one (and failed), the Pentagon has passed another milestone: failing its seventh audit in as many years. After untold years failing to make the world safer, the Pentagon’s audit failures add insult to injury.

Since the Pentagon is so bad at counting, we wanted to help with a few stats on how they did:

• Out of 28 separate entities audited (think the Marine Corps, and a slew of others), just 9 (fewer than 1 in 3) received a clean audit.

• The audit cost $178 million and involved 1,700 auditors. By contrast, in 2023 the U.S. relied on just over 700 immigration judges to handle a backlog of 2.4 million cases.

• Since the Department of Homeland Security passed an audit in 2013, the Pentagon is the last major federal agency that remains unable to do so. (What is it about militarization and not knowing where the money goes?)

• Last year, the Pentagon acknowledged that it could account for only half of its $3.8 trillion in assets (think buildings, weapons systems). This year, the Pentagon didn’t report a similar statistic - but its assets are now worth $4.1 trillion.

• The Pentagon has four more tries to pass an audit, under a legal requirement to pass an audit by FY 2028 - not likely, according top the Pentagon's chief financial officer.

What happens if the Pentagon just keeps failing? Nothing, so far.

But Congress could help motivate the Pentagon to (and likely lead toward smaller budgets) by passing the Audit the Pentagon Act, which would reduce the budget of any Pentagon entity that fails to pass an audit. With big publicity around efforts to cut government spending, we’ll find out whether the incoming administration and Congress are willing to hold the Pentagon accountable. That could be a step toward even more necessary accountability for the Pentagon’s unjust wars.