Conventional Arms Control

Former Warsaw Pact Nations' Treaty Compliance and U.S. Cost Control Gao ID: NSIAD-94-33 December 14, 1993

By November 1993, thousands of former Warsaw Pact and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) tanks, artillery pieces, aircraft, and other military equipment were to be destroyed under the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe. As a group, the former Warsaw Pact nations have shown the technical ability to reduce equipment quickly enough to meet the November 1993 interim deadline. In general, the U.S. government agencies GAO reviewed have successfully exercised all treaty rights and have met all treaty obligations. But in doing so, agencies have incurred significant implementation costs, which GAO estimates will exceed $134 million during the first three years. Policy changes could yield significant savings. To fully explore cost-saving options, however, policy officials need more complete data on implementation costs.

GAO found that: (1) the former Warsaw Pact countries have the technical ability to reduce conventional equipment to meet the November 1993 interim deadline; (2) the larger countries have conducted all of the former Warsaw Pact's reductions; (3) some individual countries may not be in full compliance with the treaty because they have not resolved the political problems of accounting for all of the former Soviet Union's treaty obligations, and some countries have failed to follow proper procedures, made incorrect notifications, and have limited resources for CFE implementation; (4) the former Warsaw Pact countries will have to increase their reduction rates to meet 1994 and 1995 deadlines; (5) in general, U.S. agencies have successfully implemented the treaty under a mandate to exercise all treaty rights and meet all possible treaty obligations, but they have incurred significant costs in doing so; (6) minor policy changes could save millions of dollars, but officials do not review implementation policies to determine whether money can be saved while maintaining high compliance and verification standards; and (7) policy officials lack complete data on implementation costs because agencies do not report all CFE-related costs.

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.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.