Drug Control

DOD Operated Aerostat Ship Although Conferees Denied Funds Gao ID: NSIAD-93-213 September 10, 1993

Beginning in the late 1980s, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Coast Guard began operating a small fleet of leased commercial vessels with tethered blimps, called aerostats, to detect and monitor boats and airplanes suspected of drug smuggling. This report discusses (1) the Pentagon's efforts to combine Army and Coast Guard missions in the Caribbean and (2) the Defense Department's use of funds in fiscal year 1992 for the operation and maintenance of sea-based aerostat ships for purposes not authorized by Congress.

GAO found that: (1) DOD took operational control of the five Coast Guard SBA ships in December 1991 and combined SBA and SASS counterdrug missions in the Caribbean in January 1992; (2) DOD spent $4.5 million to operate the third SASS ship even though the congressional conferees declined to fund the project; (3) DOD did not process the funding transaction as a reprogramming action as required by DOD regulations; and (4) the Army project office obligated funds and signed a contract without a valid funding authorization document.



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