Cooperative Threat Reduction

GAO is required to assess the Defense Department's (DOD) annual report on cooperative threat reduction assistance provided to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. DOD did not issue its January 1997 report, covering calendar year 1996, until June 25, 1997. In its review of DOD's latest report, GAO discusses whether it (1) contained current and complete data on cooperative threat reduction assistance deliveries, including the current location and condition of the assistance provided; (2) describes how the assistance was accounted for and used; (3) includes an overall determination of whether the assistance was used for its intended purposes; and (4) provides a list of future audit and examination activities.

GAO noted that: (1) DOD's June 1997 report: (a) listed CTR equipment delivered by DOD and provided information on the location and condition of the equipment, (b) described how such assistance was accounted for and used, and (c) made an overall determination that the assistance provided by DOD was appropriately used, and (d) listed DOD's future audit and examination activities; (2) however, GAO found that DOD's report lacked detailed information; (3) the report did not contain specific data on some CTR-funded projects; (4) for example, information on the CTR-funded cash grant that DOD provided directly to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense was excluded; (5) also, the report did not describe the types and values of CTR-funded assistance managed by the Departments of State and Energy; (6) through 1996, such assistance amounted to nearly $50 million for over 200 projects at the international science centers, and over $43 million for a variety of material control, accounting, and physical protection projects at 19 sites; (7) the report did not thoroughly describe how DOD accounted for CTR assistance provided through the Departments of State and Energy; (8) for example, audits by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) help account for CTR-provided assistance to the science centers, yet DOD did not report the results of 17 International Science and Technology Center project audits conducted by DCAA in 1996; (9) approximately half of the 17 audits found weaknesses in reporting labor charges of center grantees, although to date, such weaknesses have posed no risk to CTR funding; (10) also, DOD's report did not describe the nature of the Department of Energy's assurance program used to monitor the assistance provided; and (11) while DOD's report lists planned DOD audit and examination activities, it omitted those activities planned to account for CTR-funded assistance provided through the Departments of State and Energy.

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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