Defense Personnel

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO evaluated the Department of Defense's (DOD) plans to reduce personnel assigned to permanent duty in military management headquarters and other related activities.

GAO found that: (1) DOD planned to base its reductions of departmental and command headquarters personnel on authorized strength, although the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 required it to use actual strength to compute reductions; (2) using the actual strength would result in a reduction of 350 more personnel than using authorized levels; (3) DOD interpreted the act as requiring a one-time personnel reduction by September 30, 1988, plus another reduction in 1989, rather than placing a ceiling on the total number of assigned or detailed employees; and (4) as a result of DOD using authorizations as the baseline and allowing reductions against staff levels that were higher than expected, the actual end strength could be 3,321 greater than Congress intended. GAO believes that Congress may wish to resolve whether defense agencies and field activities should retain the end strength growth subsequent to passage of the act.