Adequacy of the DOD Response to Its Inspector General's Report on the Use of Vehicles Assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense Executive Motor Pool

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the operations of the executive motor pools that support the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), and it conducted a followup on a 1982 Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General report concerning executive motor pool operations to determine: (1) the corrective actions that were taken concerning questionable trips; (2) the reasons for no corrective actions if none were taken; and (3) the adequacy of present controls over the use of OSD vehicles.

GAO found that the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Administration) sent letters to officials involved in the questionable use of government-owned vehicles asking them to indicate the purpose of each trip and whether it was personal or official business. In addition, letters were sent to other officials asking them to indicate the purpose of trips taken by relatives and whether the trips were for personal or official business. As a result of these investigations, many officials were asked to reimburse the government. The GAO review also revealed that: (1) the listing of acceptable methods of transportation of personnel before and after normal duty hours was revised; (2) trips are now being questioned by dispatchers; (3) DOD Instruction 70 was prepared as a guideline for the use of the executive motor pool; (4) drivers are now required to fill out a special daily log sheet for all their trips; and (5) quarterly reviews of dispatch records and daily logs are being conducted. GAO concluded that the actions taken to identify and collect for personal trips, except those concerning the transportation of unaccompanied relatives, were prompt and reasonable. Although GAO recognized that the transportation of unaccompanied relatives of government employees has been viewed by many as "official business," it could find no basis to authorize such use. In addition, GAO determined that the actions taken to tighten controls over the use of the motor pool should significantly lessen the possibility of misuse in the future.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Henry W. Connor Team: General Accounting Office: National Security and International Affairs Division Phone: (202) 275-4141