Department of Defense's Compliance with Public Law 92-545

Under P.L. 92-545, the Department of Defense (DOD) owned family housing can be declared inadequate for public quarters and rented to military personnel with an appropriate reduction of basic allowance for quarters (BAQ). GAO performed a review of housing management at five DOD installations.

The installations studied were not ensuring that income from operating inadequate family housing covered expenses, as the law requires. Fiscal year (FY) 1975 and 1976 family housing expense reports for these installations showed that housing expenses allocated to inadequate housing exceeded rental income; however, only Fort Bragg raised the rental rate in the second quarter of FY 1976 in an attempt to cover expenses. Even at the higher rate, which was 100 percent of the occupant's BAQ, expenses exceeded rental income for the last 8 months of the FY. The DOD cost accounting system for family housing expenses did not require allocating administrative and some maintenance expenses to the individual housing categories. This precluded a valid comparison of income and expenses for inadequate housing. It appeared that Fort Bragg and MacDill Air Force Base had improperly declared some housing units as inadequate.

Recommendations

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