During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) questioned Kelly P. Mayo, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations and Director of Defense Criminal Investigative Services at the DOD Office of Inspector General, about the reasoning for the Department of Defense’s audit failures and overspending.
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00:00Ian, thank you very much. The gentleman yields back his time. I'm going to first go to our young
00:05chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Kentucky. Mr. Comer, sir, you're recognized.
00:12Thank you, Chairman Sessions, and I want to thank you and Ranking Member Infume for
00:17the work you do on this subcommittee. You all do it right. I appreciate that. My first question
00:23for both witnesses, I assume you all will both agree that fraud is a problem at the Department
00:29of Defense, DOD, correct? Yes. So do you, sir, Mr. Magnolian, do you have an estimate of how much
00:40fraud there is at the Department of Defense? I do not, Mr. Chairman. The numbers we have
00:46are based on what Mr. Sessions mentioned in his opening remarks, essentially confirmed fraud,
00:54which is tip- Massive, massive. And it's been mentioned several times, the DOD, the Pentagon,
01:01continues to fail audits, which is unacceptable, but they continue to do that. Yeah. If I may add
01:07that what is confirmed is what's been detected, investigated, and adjudicated. So we don't know
01:13what's been missed. Right. Well, let me ask both of you, does the Department of Defense agree? I know
01:20that, I think I know where Secretary Hedgepeth is, but do the rank and file employees, bureaucrats,
01:28whatever you want to call them at the Department of Defense, do they agree that there's massive
01:32fraud in the Department of Defense, Mr. Mayo? I can speak to that broadly, sir. I think many of the
01:40people in the Pentagon do understand this. I have not discussed this with them, but I think that people
01:46in the DOD, many of them have the same, same, same framework. Yes, I would agree with Mr. Mayo. I can't
01:53speak to the rank and file in broad terms, but the people we are working with to implement our
01:59recommendations seem to have their, their hearts and minds in the right place. They do believe it is
02:05a problem that needs to be addressed. But in terms of personally verifying and vouching for that,
02:11I can't do that. So what advice do you all have for Congress for this specific subcommittee that's
02:18sincere? This subcommittee is quality. Everyone's sincere about wanting to eliminate waste fraud,
02:26abuse, and mismanagement in the federal government. I think everyone knows the Department of Defense is
02:31the poster child for waste fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the federal government. We talk
02:37about it, but, but nothing gets done. What advice would you all have real quick for this subcommittee
02:43and this Congress to actually get something done to rein in the excessive spending, the, the, just the
02:52exuberant waste at the Pentagon? Mr. Mayo. Yes, sir. I think that we're doing it right now
02:57with, with, with your help, with your substance of help. I think we can make some, we can make some,
03:04not, not, not DCIS, but the government writ large. Sir? Yeah, I would agree with that. Sustained regular
03:12oversight is very important. Well, let me, let me ask you this. Is it Congress's fault? And we hear about
03:18Congress, you know, that the Pentagon will, will make a suggestion on a certain type of aircraft that
03:24maybe they don't need as many, or they don't need them at all. And, and the, a member of Congress that
03:29has a facility in their district will, will change that and say, no, we're going to order three times
03:34as many as we need. Is it Congress's fault? Who, who do you lay the blame? Is it Congress or the
03:40bureaucrats at the Department of Defense, Mr. Mayo? Who, who, who, someone has to be, we have to blame
03:47someone. Someone's at fault for the way the Department of Defense continues to fail
03:54audits. It continues to be, you know, efficient with taxpayer dollars. Is that our fault? Is that
04:02when I say our, I'm talking about Congress is from way, way back, you know, not, not Mr. Burchard or
04:07myself or Mr. Biggs. We're, we're relatively new here, but. You want to blame me? Yeah, well, no, no,
04:13no. You're, you're one of the good guys, Richard Session. But what, what, who's, who do you blame for this?
04:19I wouldn't know, sir. It's, I think it's a, it's a, a pervasive thing across the DOD and people. I think
04:26they're working hard, but, and to get things done. And a lot of these things are slipping through the
04:32cracks. I don't know how it's, I don't think it's, I don't think it's, it's not your fault. I don't think
04:36so at all. We, uh, this is something I've been here eight years and Mr. Biggs and I got here at the
04:44same time. It just, it's not getting any better. I mean, it gets worse. And, and I, you know, I think
04:51that the good thing we have now with, with President Trump, with, with, uh, you know, the,
04:56the overall objective of, of the DOGE movement is we can't continue to spend $2 trillion a year more
05:04than we take in. We've got to tighten our belts. Uh, Jamie Dimon talks about it. The bond market's
05:10concerned and we can't continue the success of spending and we want a strong military. We want
05:15to support our troops, but we cannot continue to waste money. And I appreciate the witnesses here
05:20today. I appreciate the hearing, Mr. Chairman and a ranking member. Hopefully we can come together
05:25in a bipartisan way to, to solve, uh, this problem of excessiveness at the, at the department of defense.
05:32I yield back.