Publicly Released: July 25, 2023
The purpose of this management advisory is to report on issues related to the accounting and reporting of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program inventory, collected during the DoD Agency-Wide Financial Statements audit. During the audit, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) found that the F-35 JSF Program Office did not have a valid population of Joint Strike Fighter inventory. In addition, we reported on the DoD’s plan for transferring the management, planning, and execution of sustainment activities to the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Air Force in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2022.
During our audit, we found that the F-35 JSF Program Office did not have a valid population of JSF inventory. Our test determined that 41 (19 percent) of the 217 part numbers we reviewed had at least one existence or completeness error. In addition, officials from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer, DoD, (OUSD[C]/CFO) officials did not determine how the DoD should financially report JSF inventory, and the DoD did not report any values in the FY 2022 financial statements. Furthermore, an inaccurate and incomplete asset universe could have a negative operational impact on the program and may lead to uninformed logistical and budgetary decisions, as well as potential material misstatements on the financial statements. We conducted the work on this advisory with integrity, objectivity, and independence as required by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Quality Standards for Federal Offices of Inspector General.