Financial Management: Navy Records Contain Billions of Dollars in Unmatched Disbursements: Afmd-93-21

GAO provided information on the: (1) dollar value, age, and causes of unmatched disbursements in the Navy's Standard Accounting and Reporting System; and (2) Navy's procedures for matching disbursements with obligations and the adequacy of Navy corrective action plans.
GAO found that: (1) the Department of Defense (DOD) does not agree that unmatched disbursements should be reported as a material internal control weakness in the Navy's Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act reports; (2) DOD believes that internal control weaknesses should not be acknowledged until substantial losses occur; (3) unmatched disbursements were caused by noncompliance with internal controls and the lack of adequate controls over obligations, accounting errors, and inaccurate accounting information systems; and (4) the dollar value, number of transactions, age, and upward trend of the Navy's unmatched disbursements indicate that a material weakness exists in the Navy's disbursement process that should be disclosed in Financial Integrity Act reports.