7 Fort Knox Gold Audit Reports Lost By The US Government

Koos Jansen:  Every year the gold in Fort Knox is ‘audited’ by checking the official joint seals that were placed on all vault compartments during the continuing audits of U.S.-owned gold from 1974 until 1986, when allegedly 97 % of the gold was inspected. However, a Freedom Of Information Act request I’ve submitted in order to obtain all audit reports could not be honored. Seven reports are missing.

From at least 1944 the world reserve currency is the US dollar, which was backed by gold until 1971 and supported by gold ever since. There can be no world reserve currency without appropriate gold reserves supporting it, providing essential confidence and credibility. The US official gold reserves are the world’s greatest by far at 8,134 metric tonnes. The fact that 7 audit reports that should grant the existence of these reserves appear to be missing is problematic.

At the congressional hearing of the Gold Transparency Act (H.R. 1495, not enacted) in 2011 the Inspector General (IG) of the Treasury presented a case ‘all is fine’, but all is not fine. And the problem goes far beyond missing audit reports. In a series of posts we’ll continue to examine all there is to find regarding the audits of US official gold reserves.

Let’s recap what we’ve studied in the previous posts. The US Treasury currently owns 8,134 tonnes of gold of which 7,716 tonnes is stored by the US Mint (4,583 tonnes at Fort Knox, 1,364 tonnes in Denver, 1,682 at West Point) and 418 tonnes at the Federal Reserve Bank Of New York. We’ve focused on the first audits of the gold stored by the US Mint. A Fort Knox physical gold audit in 1953 was anything but full, neither was the famous audit in 1974.

The Continuing Audits Of U.S.-Owned Gold 1974-1986

Currently the Office Inspector General of the Treasury is responsible for the audits of the gold reserves at the US Mint. At the congressional hearing of the Gold Transparency Act in 2011 Inspector General (IG) Eric Thorson stated:

Before I discuss the details of the audits that are the topic of this hearing, I want to make one point very clear: 100 percent of the U.S. Government’s gold reserves in the custody of the Mint has been inventoried and audited. Furthermore, these audits found no exceptions of any consequence. I also want to assure you that the physical security over the gold reserves is absolute. I can say that without any hesitation, because I have observed the gold and the security of the gold reserves myself.

He said this, but there is no proof. His statement “100 percent of the U.S. Government’s gold reserves in the custody of the Mint has been inventoried and audited“ is impossible to confirm, as we’ll see later on.

More from Thorson:

In June 1975, the Treasury Secretary authorized and directed a continuing audit of U.S. Government-owned gold for which Treasury is accountable. Pursuant to that order, the Committee for Continuing Audit of the U.S. Government-owned Gold performed annual audits of Treasury’s gold reserves from 1975 to 1986, placing all inventoried gold that it observed and tested under an official joint seal.

The committee was made up of staff from the Treasury, the Mint, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The annual audits by the committee ended in 1986 after 97 per cent of the Government owned gold held by the Mint had been audited and placed under official joint seal.

Ron Paul asked:

…It seems that a portion of the Mint and the U.S. gold reserves were audited in an assay between 1993 and 2008, as you acknowledged. The Mint estimated that as much as one-third of the gold reserves were examined during this period. The other two-thirds, however, have not been inventoried–that is according to my understanding–or assayed since somewhere between 1975 and 1986. Do you think it would be worthwhile, at least, to inventory and assay this portion of the Mint-held gold?    

Eric Thorson replied:

By–I forget which date it was, I believe by 1986, we–hold on just one second here, I got it. It basically covered–by 1986, 97 percent of the Government-owned gold held by the Mint had been audited and placed under joint seal. So once you have done that, and that seal remains unbroken, then I am not sure what other benefit there would be to going back into it at that point. But by 1986, you had 97 percent was audited–

Connecting thereto, from Thorson’s opening statement:

My office began conducting annual audits of the gold reserves in Fiscal Year 1993.

Since 1993, when we assumed responsibility for the audit, my office has continued to directly observe the inventory and test the gold.

…At the end of Fiscal Year of 2008, all 42 compartments had been audited by either the GAO, the Committee for Continuing Audit of the U.S. Government-owned Gold, or my office, and placed under official joint seals. There has not been any movement of inventoried gold since that time.

From 1993 to 2008 the remaining 3 % of the gold reserves stored at the US Mint have been audited. For this post we’ll focus on the continuing audits of U.S.-owned gold, as these audits should proof there is gold in Fort Knox. By gathering information from audit reports from 1974 – 1986 (the ones I could get my hands on) and statements made at the congressional hearing in 2011 we’ll analyze our way through this. I have copied as much quotes in this post as I can to minimize the possibility of an erroneous interpretation of the official text in the audit reports.

At the hearing Thorson presented exhibits to support his case 100 % of the gold held at the US Mint has been audited. Next, we can see Thorson’s list he presented of physical gold audit reports of the continuing audit program from 1974 to 1986.

On this sheet 5 physical gold audit reports are listed, framed in red. The reports from 1974 and 1977 we’ve extensively analyzed in my previous post Second Thoughts On US Official Gold Reserves Audits, published on February 9, 2015.After writing it I’ve been trying to collect all audit reports dating from 1974 – 1986. The 1974 Fort Knox audit by the GAO has been acknowledged and adopted by the continuing audits committee, so this it became part of the continuing audits.

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Source: http://marketdailynews.com/2015/06/02/7-fort-knox-gold-audit-reports-lost-by-the-us-government/