1992 Army Budget

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Army's justification for its fiscal year (FY) 1992 operation and maintenance (O&M) budget request for the U.S. Army, Europe (USAREUR) to identify potential reductions to this request, focusing on the amounts requested for operating tempo (OPTEMPO), civilian personnel, operation of Prepositioned Materiel Configured to Unit Sets (POMCUS) storage facilities, and real property maintenance accounts.

GAO found that: (1) the budget amount requested for OPTEMPO did not reflect current status in USAREUR concerning equipment transferred to the Persian Gulf that may not be returned to Europe and the force reductions planned for USAREUR in FY 1992; (2) the number of funded civilian work years included in the January 1991 budget request was greater than the civilian personnel levels provided to USAREUR in the Army's March 1991 program budget guidance and later revised downward by the Department of the Army; (3) the amount included in the budget request for O&M of the POMCUS storage sites is greater than the amount to be provided for USAREUR; (4) on the basis of funding levels proposed in the program budget guidance, USAREUR believes that its ability to effectively provide for an orderly drawdown of forces in Europe may be severely impaired; (5) the program budget guidance to USAREUR imposed a $221-million burden-sharing offset to the USAREUR budget, but officials are not optimistic that the German government will be willing to pay the burden-sharing amount; (6) the program budget guidance allocated $74 million to real property maintenance, but in the absence of burden sharing by the German government, USAREUR will not have the capability to perform any repairs not considered an emergency, and the maintenance backlog will continue to increase; and (7) the O&M budget request for USAREUR is overstated by $43 million because the Army's program budget guidance included $77 million to operate and maintain the POMCUS storage facilities.