Is it true that the Army cooked the books and cannot account for trillions? How would something like this happen without criminal charges?

This is not the whole story. If you use Generally Accountng Practices (GAP) and you try and do something as simple as a balance sheet (assets, liabilities) and a cash flow sheet, you would have to put the value of all assets.....real estate, capital assets, equipment, etc. how do you value an M1 tank that has been through depot level rebuild like 6 times for your asset listing? In industry, that type of asset would be straight lined to zero over 10-15 years, disposed of, and a new asset programmed for use. The value of inventory on hand....including CIF. So that 25 year old e-tool, how is that valued? Most organizations would not even track that as an asset. Anything under $500 is usually considered disposable. I can write off assets as a civilian Director that would take a Brigade Commander to provide relief over.

What is the street value of Fort Hood? Do you factor in known environmental liabilities if you were to sell it? What is the commercial value of a motorpool? Does it matter that it has little to no commercial value? Go to Picatinny Arsenal, look at a temporary building built in the great depression as a storage magazine, after a small renovation it is now a R and D for explosives, then it is changed to a test facility, then to admin space, then it is an explosives lab again. Is the value zero because of asset age or is it based on original cost or is it replacement value? This is all rolled in in Long Term Fixed assets on a Balance Sheet.

How is an auditor going to process FLIPLs that are under investigation?

So in the attached article, it is that the money is not properly accounted for....meaning not expensed to the correct account in a mindless maze of T Accounts of debits and credits through tens of thousands of journal entries. Justnin the DFAS COBOL based system, there are 128 documented work around to get pay to service members so that get what we owe them. So each time you run one of those for each person who needs it, it creates an accounting ripple in the pond that now carries through to the other parts of the system.

Also in here is the accounting errors of previous years. Each FY, budgeteers have to review how many fiscal years? You in the back, yes you...correct, 5 fiscal years plus the one you are actually closing out. It is absolutely mind numbing, budgeteers combing through individual transactions to find the dreaded ULO, unliquidated obligation, money DoD owes to someone else. It is a hot mess....even though people paid the invoices as they arrived and accounted for it at the time it was spent.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/01/pentagon-budget-government-spending-military

It is not just the Army. No one in DOD has been audited. The incidents in the article are a small aspect of the issue.

Isn't that part of the swamp we are supposed to be draining