Defense Department officials brief reporters on the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget at the Pentagon on April 21, 2026. (Alexander Kubitza/U.S. Navy)
The Pentagon has awarded a nearly $49 million contract for an artificial intelligence platform designed to help agencies prepare for annual financial audits as the department works toward a congressionally mandated clean audit by 2028.
Army Contracting Command on Monday awarded the contract to Groundswell Corp. for its Agentic Auditor platform, according to contract documents. The contract is in effect until June 8, 2031.
Agentic Auditor is designed to streamline data collection and audit preparation across Defense Department organizations.
“Agentic Auditor modernizes how agencies prepare for, respond to, and manage audits,” the company states on its website. It “eliminates bottlenecks, accelerates task resolution, and strengthens visibility on internal controls from day one.”
The Pentagon is the only federal agency that has not received an unmodified financial audit since annual audits became mandatory under the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The Defense Department has been required to undergo department-wide annual audits since 2018 and has failed each one, the office said.
Congress has directed the department to obtain a clean audit by 2028. Under the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, Defense Department components that fail to comply with independent audits risk losing certain funding, although the law does not establish penalties if the department as a whole misses the 2028 deadline.
Contract documents indicate Agentic Auditor will be used by the Army, Navy, Air Force and other department agencies.
Groundswell, a Northern Virginia-based provider of information technology services for federal agencies, was acquired in 2022 by CollabraLink, another Virginia technology company focused on government and commercial clients.
