Army releases Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Financial Report and audit results

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army released the results of its financial statement audit contained within its Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Financial Report.

This year, the Army downgraded six material weaknesses within its general fund and working capital fund, representing an important step toward greater financial integrity and stewardship of American taxpayer dollars. By downgrading the Army's Fund Balance with Treasury general fund material weakness, the Army not only accomplished a Secretary of Defense audit priority, but also positioned itself closer to balancing its checkbook with the U.S. Treasury, increasing its financial accountability and transparency. This, along with the other material weakness downgrades made for a successful fiscal 2024. Those downgrades include:

• Entity-Level Controls - Enterprise Responsibilities (general fund and working capital fund): Improves the Army's ability to maintain a strong tone at the top by instituting governance and monitoring functions across the entire enterprise.
• Environmental and Disposal Liabilities - Asset Driven (working capital fund): Establishes accurate financial estimates of environmental and disposal liabilities at Army depots.
• General Equipment (working capital fund): Provides stronger awareness of the location, condition and quantity of equipment at Army depots.
• Real Property (working capital fund): Enables greater insight into the Army's real estate footprint across Army depots, driving more accurate maintenance budgets.

"This report highlights our firm commitment to the Army's mission, transparently aligning dollars and resources for maximum impact, while maintaining our commitment to national and allied security," said Caral Spangler, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management and Comptroller. "Our uniformed personnel and civilians worked incredibly hard over the last two years to achieve six material weaknesses downgrades in one audit cycle, a momentous achievement for the Army, and for the entire Department of Defense."

Along with material weakness downgrades, the Army also took other notable steps towards auditability in fiscal 2024 by launching a Continuous Monitoring Program, which creates a standardized internal control testing infrastructure, increases consistency across commands, and enhances the Army's ability to identify and correct control issues before they impact the financial statements.

The Army is downgrading general fund and working capital fund material weakness according to its audit roadmap, which guides the Army toward meeting the latest National Defense Authorization Act mandate to achieve a clean audit opinion by Dec. 31, 2028. Looking to fiscal year 2025, the Army will continue its audit momentum by targeting more material weaknesses for downgrade across the general fund and working capital fund. The Army's continued efforts will enhance visibility over its assets and inventory, a critical aspect of operational readiness and strategic decision-making. With the closing of each audit finding, the Army's goal will be to reinforce its trust with Congress and the American taxpayer.

The full version of the Fiscal Year 2024 Army Annual Financial Report is available here: https://www.asafm.army.mil/portals/72/Documents/Audit/fy24afr.pdf.