2Pac once said, “They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor.” A recent internal audit of the U.S. Army’s budget has suggested: the organization is wasting millions of tax paying dollars.
As if having a president who tweets, more than he works wasn’t enough. It appears the Army is splurging dollars on “ineffective marketing programs” which do not equate the cost.
Although a spokesmen for the Army Marketing and Research Group (AMRG) stated, “An audit of our outreach efforts is not yet complete, and any comment on the findings would be premature.”
In contrast, the audit which dates back to 2016 is still ongoing. The audit calls for accountability on $4 billion in spending over a 10 year period.
Adweek was able to obtain a summary of the active audit. The document dated, Oct. 5 2017, suggests that only three of the 23 marketing programs were considered sufficient.
The document further suggests the AMRG squandered away more than $930.7 million between 2013 and 2016 on “marketing efforts that potentially didn’t provide best value to support Army recruiting,” Not to mention, 20 of the programs in question cost tax payers $36.8 million in 2016. Adweek projects the AMRG will spend $220 million between 2018 and 2023.
On the contrary, the AMRG is rather dismissive of this report. Citing the report lacks objectivity and further stating, they already knew the Army’s marketing strategy “was not effective and needed replacement.”
Additionally, they claim the audit’s results “ignore that marketing and recruiting are separate activities.”
Nonetheless, the audit is still in progress. However given the instability of the commander in chief, and the staggering amounts of money spent. The American people deserve a concise answer as to how the AMRG is spending their money.
If the AMRG is well aware of ineffective practices and costly spending habits, the leaders need to do everything within their power to prevent wasting tax dollars.
