Army Housing

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the diversion of Army training funds due to overcharges and inefficient use of on-base lodging.

GAO found that: (1) some Army installations overcharged official travellers and their home commands millions of dollars for transient lodging and used the excess charges to subsidize other Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) Fund programs and to provide questionable amenities to distinguished visitors' quarters (DVQ); (2) contrary to congressional committee guidance, the Army combined transient lodging funds with nonappropriated funds from other MWR activities in a single fund; (3) the Army and the Department of Defense (DOD) failed to effectively evaluate or monitor lodging operations to ensure that lodging costs were kept to the minimum needed for authorized operation and minor improvements; (4) since 1985, the Army Forces Command and the Army Training and Doctrine Command have realized an estimated $70 million from inflated transient lodging charges; (5) the Army granted transient personnel more costly off-base per diem when on-base lodging was available; (6) the Army reservation system fostered inefficient use of transient quarters; (7) inefficient use of DVQ increased per diem costs; (8) use of transient quarters by transferred Army personnel resulted in temporary duty travellers being denied rooms, at a cost of $30,600; (9) inefficient management of Army barracks led to unnecessary off-base per diem; and (10) the Army Audit Agency identified, as widespread problems, overcharges for transient lodging and payments for off-base lodging when transient quarters were available as widespread problems.

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.

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