NASA’s annual audit is not only not as great as NASA claims, it illustrates how the poison of DEI permeates the agency
Not everything is as great as NASA claims
Yesterday NASA issued a press release proudly announcing that its annual independent audit of NASA’s finances concluded “for the 14th consecutive year … an unmodified, or ‘clean,’ opinion [of] its fiscal year 2024 financial statements.”
The rating is the best possible audit opinion, certifying that NASA’s financial statements conform with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for federal agencies and accurately present the agency’s financial position. The audit opinion reaffirms the agency’s commitment to transparency in the use of American taxpayers’ dollars.
In reading the actual financial statements and auditor’s report (available here [pdf]), I found however that all is not “clean”, as NASA claims. Two issues of concern — one financial and the other political — are well buried in the report and should be quickly dealt with by the upcoming Trump administration.
Sloppy bookkeeping
First, the independent auditor, Ernst & Young, found that NASA’s internal control system designed to track spending was not quite up to par. From pages 90-91 of the report:
During our tests of year-end financial statement amounts included in the draft agency financial report, we identified an unusual increase in the accounts payable balance when compared to the prior year amount. Upon investigation it was determined that a routine accrual for contract costs was posted to the financial management system in an amount that misstated the accounts payable line item by $254 million.
During our testing, we identified multiple controls that did not operate as designed and failed to prevent and/or detect and correct the erroneous posting in a timely manner. …
Although the individual error was ultimately corrected by management and the amount of the error was not material to the overall financial statements, the failure of multiple controls in the financial
reporting process increases the risk of similar errors going undetected and, therefore, causing a material misstatement of NASA’s financial statements. [emphasis mine]
Though Ernst & Young reported this issue in its report, its contract with NASA did not require it to include this issue in its final assessment of NASA. And because NASA corrected the issue so that in the end the financial statements added up correctly, the auditor was thus required to issue its “clean” conclusion.
Nonetheless, over the decades NASA has had a history of sloppiness in its accounting practices. This audit suggests some of that sloppiness remains, and should be looked into closely by the next administration and NASA’s new administrator, whoever that might be.
The poison of DEI
The second issue relates not to the audit but to the Biden administration’s insistence that NASA (and all government agencies) impose Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) quotas in its hiring. In this financial report, NASA continues to proudly note how its hiring and contracting policies have imposed racial and gender quotas to favor certain minorities, woman, and the “LGBTQIA+ community.”
In FY 2024, NASA began a six-phase multi-year Agency-wide Full Workforce Barrier Analysis. The barrier analysis will address NASA’s overall workforce across the Agency and will examine four key identities: 1) race/ethnicity, 2) gender, 3) disability status, 4) LGBTQIA+ and include a component addressing NASA’s leadership pipeline. Thus far the Agency has completed two phases including personnel data analysis and shareholder interviewers, with a quantitative survey in phase three forthcoming.
From NASA’s Equity Plan.
The report links to NASA’s Equity Plan [pdf], which outlines this racist quota system in great detail. For example, NASA has set aside $2.3 billion in future contracts and grants expressly for minorities, women, and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Maybe the most ridiculous policy under this Equity Plan is the “Equity in Climate Data Accessibility and Environmental Justice” program. To quote:
NASA Earth Science and its Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center conducted their first Equity and Environmental Justice Virtual Workshop to facilitate increased communication between NASA and Environmental Justice communities.
What the hell does this really mean? My guess is that at a minimum this program is giving these partisan leftist Marxists powerful positions to influence NASA policy in a completely inappropriate way. At worst NASA is using this program to funnel taxpayer money to these DEI outside organizations to give them resources and power for their racist lobbying efforts and political campaigning, something that is entirely inappropriate (with NASA playing political favorites) and outside the agency’s fundamental statutory authority.
The Trump administration should very quickly cancel this Equity Plan and the entire DEI department at NASA. The money used for these bigoted programs should instead be spent on NASA’s prime mission, encouraging the growth of a vibrant aerospace industry so that all Americans can explore the solar system — no matter what their race or sex — in the manner they desire.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Not everything is as great as NASA claims
Yesterday NASA issued a press release proudly announcing that its annual independent audit of NASA’s finances concluded “for the 14th consecutive year … an unmodified, or ‘clean,’ opinion [of] its fiscal year 2024 financial statements.”
The rating is the best possible audit opinion, certifying that NASA’s financial statements conform with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for federal agencies and accurately present the agency’s financial position. The audit opinion reaffirms the agency’s commitment to transparency in the use of American taxpayers’ dollars.
In reading the actual financial statements and auditor’s report (available here [pdf]), I found however that all is not “clean”, as NASA claims. Two issues of concern — one financial and the other political — are well buried in the report and should be quickly dealt with by the upcoming Trump administration.
Sloppy bookkeeping
First, the independent auditor, Ernst & Young, found that NASA’s internal control system designed to track spending was not quite up to par. From pages 90-91 of the report:
During our tests of year-end financial statement amounts included in the draft agency financial report, we identified an unusual increase in the accounts payable balance when compared to the prior year amount. Upon investigation it was determined that a routine accrual for contract costs was posted to the financial management system in an amount that misstated the accounts payable line item by $254 million.
During our testing, we identified multiple controls that did not operate as designed and failed to prevent and/or detect and correct the erroneous posting in a timely manner. …
Although the individual error was ultimately corrected by management and the amount of the error was not material to the overall financial statements, the failure of multiple controls in the financial
reporting process increases the risk of similar errors going undetected and, therefore, causing a material misstatement of NASA’s financial statements. [emphasis mine]
Though Ernst & Young reported this issue in its report, its contract with NASA did not require it to include this issue in its final assessment of NASA. And because NASA corrected the issue so that in the end the financial statements added up correctly, the auditor was thus required to issue its “clean” conclusion.
Nonetheless, over the decades NASA has had a history of sloppiness in its accounting practices. This audit suggests some of that sloppiness remains, and should be looked into closely by the next administration and NASA’s new administrator, whoever that might be.
The poison of DEI
The second issue relates not to the audit but to the Biden administration’s insistence that NASA (and all government agencies) impose Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) quotas in its hiring. In this financial report, NASA continues to proudly note how its hiring and contracting policies have imposed racial and gender quotas to favor certain minorities, woman, and the “LGBTQIA+ community.”
In FY 2024, NASA began a six-phase multi-year Agency-wide Full Workforce Barrier Analysis. The barrier analysis will address NASA’s overall workforce across the Agency and will examine four key identities: 1) race/ethnicity, 2) gender, 3) disability status, 4) LGBTQIA+ and include a component addressing NASA’s leadership pipeline. Thus far the Agency has completed two phases including personnel data analysis and shareholder interviewers, with a quantitative survey in phase three forthcoming.
From NASA’s Equity Plan.
The report links to NASA’s Equity Plan [pdf], which outlines this racist quota system in great detail. For example, NASA has set aside $2.3 billion in future contracts and grants expressly for minorities, women, and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Maybe the most ridiculous policy under this Equity Plan is the “Equity in Climate Data Accessibility and Environmental Justice” program. To quote:
NASA Earth Science and its Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center conducted their first Equity and Environmental Justice Virtual Workshop to facilitate increased communication between NASA and Environmental Justice communities.
What the hell does this really mean? My guess is that at a minimum this program is giving these partisan leftist Marxists powerful positions to influence NASA policy in a completely inappropriate way. At worst NASA is using this program to funnel taxpayer money to these DEI outside organizations to give them resources and power for their racist lobbying efforts and political campaigning, something that is entirely inappropriate (with NASA playing political favorites) and outside the agency’s fundamental statutory authority.
The Trump administration should very quickly cancel this Equity Plan and the entire DEI department at NASA. The money used for these bigoted programs should instead be spent on NASA’s prime mission, encouraging the growth of a vibrant aerospace industry so that all Americans can explore the solar system — no matter what their race or sex — in the manner they desire.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
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