Marine Corps continues streak as only service to pass financial audit

The U.S. Marine Corps passed its fiscal year 2025 financial audit for the third year in a row, marking the Corps as the first and only service to achieve a successful audit opinion.

The Corps’ audit process revealed that the service’s financial records are accurate, complete and compliant with federal regulations, according to a Monday release.

“When the American people entrust us with their tax dollars, we owe them careful judgment and integrity in how those dollars are spent,” Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric M. Smith said in the statement.

The Corps has long been the only service to pass a “clean, unmodified audit opinion” across the military and the Department of Defense as a whole since 2018, when it was first mandated to conduct a full audit.

The Pentagon continues to struggle to achieve a clean opinion from the Inspector General as required by Congress by its FY28 deadline, which the department set on its own.

The DOD recently was allotted a budget of around $901 billion for Fiscal Year 2026, but President Donald Trump has recently called for its increase to $1.5 trillion for fiscal 2027 in a social media post last month.

“The findings produced by the audit help the service to more efficiently and accurately plan, program, budget, and spend funds appropriated by Congress,” the memo reads.

Independent public accountants contracted by the Department of Defense Inspector General audited all records, the release states.

The audit tests the Corps’ network, business systems and internal controls, while validating accurate global tracking and reporting of financial transactions, inventory of facilities, equipment and assets and accountability of taxpayer dollars spent during this last fiscal year, according to the statement.

The service strives to modernize its system and procedures to create a smoother and more efficient audit for years to come by utilizing artificial intelligence and automation, officials said in a media roundtable last week.

In the past, the service has depended on manual assessments and human reviews, but the Corps has begun moving away from human reviews to lift some of the burden.

Better technology to support the Corps’ audit practices has reduced manual effort, improved data accuracy and strengthened audit compliance through automation and control, Deputy Commandant for Programs and Resources Lt. Gen. James Adams III said in a Friday video to the force.

In the video, Adams highlighted how Marines and civilians identified inefficiencies and solutions, pointing out how one Marine developed an automation tool that cut research hours by nearly 40% and helped close the fiscal year with no unmatched transactions.

“With each additional audit year under our belts, we get smarter and adapt, finding new and better ways to get the job done,” Adams said in the memo.

The audit identified seven “material weaknesses” for the Corps to improve on going forward, but that did not stop its passing of the review, per the release.

The final report said the ongoing weaknesses are: oversight and monitoring; budget execution and monitoring; general property, plant and equipment; inventory and related property; operating materials and supplies; financial information systems — access controls/segregation of duties; financial information systems — configuration management; and financial information systems — information technology operations.