Household Goods

Administrative Changes Would Improve DOD's Do-It-Yourself Moving Program Gao ID: NSIAD-94-226 September 27, 1994

GAO reviewed the Defense Department's (DOD) Do-It-Yourself program, a voluntary program in which military personnel move their own household goods or arrange to have them moved by a private company. Under the program, service members receive 80 percent of what it would have cost the government to ship the goods by a commercial carrier. The program is intended to save the government money while also providing extra income, in the form of a cash incentive, to participating members. GAO (1) assessed the extent to which service members were using the program, (2) determines whether DOD was adequately making service members aware of the program's benefits, and (3) ascertains whether DOD has sufficient controls to ensure that the program is cost-effective.

GAO found that: (1) DITY moves have increased from about 28,000 in fiscal year (FY) 1977 to more than 156,000 and 147,000 in FY 1992 and FY 1993, respectively; (2) domestic commercial shipments have remained constant at about 200,000 per year; (3) not all commercial shipments are DITY candidates because of the location, size, complexity of the move, or special requirements; (4) although service members are aware of DITY, DOD transportation offices do not always make a concerted effort to inform members of DITY benefits prior to their moves; (5) the program's cash incentive is the greatest motivator for participation, but transportation offices usually calculate the cash amount members receive only when a member is already inclined to participate; (6) DOD does not know if DITY moves are always cost-effective because it does not take into account discounts offered by commercial carriers when calculating DITY payments; and (7) when DOD pays excess DITY costs, it violates the statute authorizing the payment of DITY cash incentives.

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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