Department of Defense

GAO reviewed the Defense Department's (DOD) Humanitarian and Civic Assistance Program, which provides nonlethal assistance for humanitarian activities. Since 1985, when Congress first authorized such assistance, the program has grown rapidly. Under the program, DOD has provided foreign countries with excess medical supplies and clothing from its stocks, helped to rebuild or repair countries' infrastructures, delivered disaster assistance, and transported food and supplies from private donor groups to starving people abroad. GAO recommends that DOD (1) develop a cost-effective method for providing Congress with a more reasonable estimate of the costs incurred in providing humanitarian assistance; (2) issue an implementing directive for conducting humanitarian and civic assistance activities as required by the law, which would clarify DOD's authority to engage in humanitarian assistance and would set a dollar threshold for minimum assistance provided under title 10 legislation; (3) ensure that projects contribute to U.S. foreign policy objectives and have the full support of the host country involved; and (4) ensure that commands are evaluating the effectiveness of the projects.

GAO found that: (1) between 1986 and 1992, the HCA program distributed excess nonlethal equipment and supplies to 117 countries and established many civic assistance projects; (2) the extent of HCA program assistance is not fully known because some civil assistance projects are not following reporting requirements; (3) the total cost of the HCA program is not known because transportation and personnel costs and excess property donation costs are not reported; (4) although DOD had permanent authority over HCA programs in 1987, it did not issue implementation guidelines to resolve significant differences in the military services' interpretation of the authorizing legislation; (5) most HCA activities are paid from the military services' operations and maintenance accounts; (6) many HCA programs in Panama and Honduras do not meet U.S. foreign policy objectives, enhance U.S. military training, meet the host countries' needs, or have sufficient coordination between the U.S. military, embassies, and Agency for International Development (AID) missions; and (7) DOD commands in Panama and Honduras do not systematically evaluate HCA projects or perform follow-up visits to determine program effectiveness.

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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