Financial Management

Army Real Property Accounting and Reporting Weaknesses Impede Management Decision-making Gao ID: AIMD-94-9 November 2, 1993

The Army has had continuing problems in obtaining reliable accounting and management information on its real property at installation. Although progress has been slow, efforts under way in the continental United States and Europe could help ensure the accuracy of the real property data used to support real property operations and facility maintenance budgeting. However, these measures only address the accuracy of the data as of the date reviews are completed. Without correcting systemic problems and establishing an effective financial oversight mechanism to maintain data accuracy, these efforts may be wasted. GAO believes that achieving the institutional discipline to obtain reliable databases can be achieved by (1) establishing procedures and monitoring accounting for construction-in-progress at installations, (2) promptly reporting and transferring completed Corps construction projects to receiving installations, and (3) reconciling general ledger balances with the Facilities System.

GAO found that: (1) the Army's system for recording real property at its installations could not provide complete and accurate information on the quantity and type of Army structures and facilities; (2) real property maintenance budget requests are unreliable partly because of inadequate guidance and inconsistent reporting requirements for installation reports; (3) the Army's base realignment and closure evaluation process needs additional data verification on real property status information to ensure data accuracy; (4) inconsistent reporting of real property makes comparisons between major commands less meaningful; (5) many previously reported problems such as unreconciled balances and inaccurate property records remain uncorrected; (6) the Army has initiated efforts to improve its real property management and accounting system, but progress has been slow; and (7) the Army needs to establish an effective financial oversight mechanism to maintain data accuracy over the long-term.

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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