Military Bases

Potential Reductions to the Fiscal Year 1997 Base Closure Budget Gao ID: NSIAD-96-158 July 15, 1996

A review of the Defense Department's (DOD) Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) accounts indicates that Congress has little assurance that appropriated BRAC funds will be used as requested in DOD budget submissions. BRAC expenditures vary substantially from budget submissions. In past budget submissions, environmental costs have been understated while costs for other BRAC subaccounts, such as military construction and operation and maintenance, have been overstated. The DOD fiscal year 1997 budget request can be reduced by about $148 million (about 6 percent) because funds from prior year appropriations will be available to fund future expenditures. Additional reductions are possible because mandated annual DOD Inspector General (IG) audits of BRAC construction projects identify projects that can be eliminated or reduced in scope. If the fiscal year 1997 IG audit identifies reductions in the projects proportionate to the reductions identified in 1996 and 1995, the amount would be about $60 million.

GAO found that: (1) because BRAC expenditures vary substantially from budget submissions, Congress cannot be assured that appropriated BRAC funds will be used as requested; (2) past DOD budget requests have understated environmental costs and overstated other BRAC costs for military construction and operation and maintenance; (3) DOD had $342 million in unobligated budget balances as of December 1995; (4) although Congress has rescinded some of these high unobligated balances, DOD continues to request funds in advance of its needs; (5) the DOD fiscal year 1997 budget request can be reduced by about $148 million, since funds from prior year appropriations will be available to fund future expenditures; (6) reducing the fiscal year 1997 budget would help control the amount of unobligated funds in the BRAC account; (7) about $144 million in 1996 O&M funds are not supported by valid Army requirements; (8) the DOD Inspector General (IG) identified additional reductions that are possible by eliminating or reducing certain BRAC construction projects; and (9) if the DOD IG identifies reductions in FY 1997 construction projects similar to the reductions identified in 1996 and 1995, the amount of unneeded funds would total $60 million.

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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