Reserve Officers' Training Corps

Less Need for Officers Provides Opportunity for Significant Savings Gao ID: NSIAD-91-102 May 6, 1991

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the military services' Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) programs.

GAO found that: (1) due to reductions in officer end strength, Air Force and Army ROTC programs have produced over 9,000 more graduates than needed since 1987; (2) the Navy averted large-scale overproduction of officers by making adjustments to its officer candidate school; (3) to reduce the number of ROTC enrollees in officer schools, both the Air Force and Army released graduates from their military service obligations and delayed graduates' entry into active duty; (4) neither the Air Force nor Army developed a comprehensive plan to efficiently meet reduced needs, and both services will continue to incur additional costs associated with producing too many ROTC graduates; (5) all three services maintained unproductive ROTC units that met congressional criteria for closure; (6) of the 630 ROTC units, 65 were below minimum enrollment guidelines as of fiscal year 1990; (7) the Department of Defense (DOD) did not oversee ROTC program productivity and closure decisions to ensure that services complied with closure guidelines; and (8) DOD lacked a standard cost-reporting system for ROTC.

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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