President Donald Trump’s federal hiring freeze may have derailed the Defense Contract Audit Agency’s goal to clear its audit backlog by 2018, the DCAA said in an otherwise glowing annual report to Congress made available recently.

The DCAA boasted $3.6 billion in savings from its audit activity during the 2016 fiscal year in its report, but the Pentagon’s primary bean counter for the acquisition community also said that Trump’s 90-day hiring freeze signed in late January may affect its ability to clear a 17.6-month audit backlog by next year.

“Until the recent 2017 hiring freeze, I was confident that we would meet our target of eliminating the backlog by the close of 2018,” DCAA Director Anita Bales, an Obama-era appointee, told congressional defense committees in the March 31 report made available last week. “However, we are currently reassessing our projections to determine how the new hiring freeze will impact our ability to meet our target date.”

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