Military Aid

The United States provides billions of dollars of military aid annually to foreign countries. Yet the Department of Defense (DOD) is not closely monitoring how recipient countries are using U.S.-funded defense items, and it lacks reasonable assurance that countries are complying with legislatively required commitments regarding item use. Legislation requiring U.S. monitoring does not specifically apply to military aid that has been provided after fiscal year 1981. DOD regulations do not contain accountability standards or indicate what level of U.S. oversight is appropriate. U.S. observation and reporting on host country use of U.S.-funded items are limited and done as a secondary duty. Although recipient countries exert controls over U.S.-funded items, control weaknesses and instances of misuse suggest that the emphasis on accountability has been insufficient.

GAO found that: (1) since the Arms Export Control Act, which governs military aid items that have been purchased by recipient countries since fiscal year (FY) 1982, does not specify U.S. responsibilities for oversight and monitoring of U.S.-supplied defense articles, U.S. officials are not sure whether and to what extent they are responsible for monitoring military equipment and supplies once they are delivered to a host country; (2) although the seven recipient countries visited have security controls over U.S.-funded items, weaknesses in those controls and cases of actual and alleged diversion indicate that U.S.-funded items may be vulnerable to misuse and that the emphasis on accountability is not sufficient; (3) enhancement of U.S. oversight could probably be achieved without adding staff resources in most cases, beginning with the development of accountability standards to provide the level of oversight appropriate for each country and related conditions; (4) U.S. security assistance organizations are not meeting the minimal monitoring requirement in Department of Defense (DOD) guidance for U.S. military aid provided before FY 1982; and (5) although some items provided before FY 1982 may require continued monitoring, special controls for older military aid items, which are not applied to the aid program, may not be an appropriate use of security assistance organization resources.

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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