Panetta accelerates full budget audit deadline

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the House Armed Services Committee on Oct. 13 that he wants the Defense Department to complete a full audit of its budget by 2014, three years earlier than previously planned, reports Defense News.

"Today I am announcing that I have directed the department to cut in half the time it will take to achieve audit readiness for the Statement of Budgetary Resources, so that in 2014 we will have the ability to conduct a full budget audit," Panetta told the committee.

The Statement of Budgetary Resources will show the flow of money in and out of the department, and also will identify what was obligated and what was spent in terms of checks written, according to DOD officials.