PHILADELPHIA –
DLA Troop Support is aggressively pursuing a clean financial audit by taking its accountability mission directly to the supply chain’s front lines.
"Audit readiness is a top priority for DLA Troop Support and ensuring our vendor partners are fully prepared for these rigorous evaluations is essential to our overall success," said Christopher Mosher, DLA Troop Support's deputy commander. "By visiting this location ahead of the audit, we can identify any potential areas of friction and ensure a smooth, transparent process when the official auditors arrive."
Obtaining a "clean" audit opinion on financial statements for the DLA Working Capital Fund is a top priority for the agency, and DLA Troop Support is leading the charge by ensuring readiness at every level of the organization. The team recently completed a comprehensive review at Travis Association for the Blind, ensuring the facility is thoroughly prepared for the rigorous scrutiny of an upcoming independent evaluation by Ernst & Young, the independent public accounting firm tasked with auditing the agency. During the session, the DLA Troop Support team walked the warehouse floor to observe daily operations, rigorously reviewed standard operating procedures and performed physical inventory counts. The primary goal was to verify that the physical stock perfectly matched the data recorded on the agency's digital ledger, a frontline effort that complements DLA's ongoing enterprise-wide deployment of the Warehouse Management System, the technological cornerstone for the financial audit.
"We want our partners to feel completely confident when the auditors walk through their doors," said Rachel Ganaway, director of DLA Troop Support's Strategic Initiative Group. "This site visit was about taming the audit process, setting clear expectations and working side-by-side with the team to validate that their operational procedures are consistently documented and executed."
To simulate the environment of an official audit, the DLA Troop Support team requested specific, detailed documentation for a wide sample of historical transactions. This administrative "stress test" evaluated the facility's record-keeping speed and accuracy, checking everything from initial receiving reports to final shipping manifests. The stakes are high, as military services across the Department of War depend heavily on DLA’s internal controls and systems, such as the Defense Agencies Initiative and Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment, both of which successfully secured consecutive unmodified, clean opinions in fiscal year 2025.
"This is about shifting the entire culture of the agency toward permanent financial transparency," Mosher said. "When we can prove exactly where every dollar and every item is at any given moment, we are strengthening the trust that our warfighters and the American taxpayers place in DLA Troop Support every single day."
Once the physical counts and documentation reviews were complete, the joint team pivoted to a strategic analysis of the day’s findings to develop a concrete roadmap for the final months leading up to the official inspection. By resolving minor administrative gaps during this rehearsal, the agency is effectively creating a standardized blueprint for audit readiness. Building on recent agency successes such as maintaining a clean audit opinion for the National Defense Stockpile Transaction Fund, this enterprise-wide consistency ensures DLA remains on track as it tackles its fiscal 2026 audit goals.
"The level of engagement from the leadership at the site was outstanding, reflecting a true partnership," Ganaway said. "Because of this joint effort, both DLA and the vendor are operating with a unified understanding of the audit requirements, leaving us well-positioned for a highly successful visit in the months ahead."