(NewsNation) — The U.S. Marine Corps became the first American military branch to pass a complete financial audit, according to a Military.com report.
The Department of Defense confirmed that the Marines successfully accounted for more than $46.3 billion in assets, marking the end of a two-year effort.
The milestone — something the other armed services and the Defense Department itself still have not achieved — comes after almost two decades of trying to prepare the Corps’ records and several failed audits along the way, according to the MarineTimes.
Gregory Koval, the assistant deputy commandant for resources, told reporters the audit team made more than 70 site visits in the U.S. and around the world. In these visits, they checked more than 7,800 real property assets such as land and buildings; 5,900 pieces of military equipment; 1.9 million pieces of non-ammunition supplies, such as spare parts; and 24 million items of ammunition, some of which are stored at Army and Navy facilities.
Koval said the final financial report states the Marine Corps passed its audit but still has some areas where it can improve.
Lt. Gen. James Adams, the deputy commandant for programs and resources, said one area of focus is automating processes. Today, there are disparate systems where data must be manually moved from one system to another, introducing the opportunity for error. The service is moving toward integrated, automated systems that would avoid human error in sharing information between human resources and financial data systems, for example.