Chemical Demilitarization

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's Chemical Demilitarization Program, focusing on the : (1) extent to which the program retains significant levels of prior years' appropriations in excess of spending plans; (2) amounts of reported unallocated appropriations and unliquidated obligations from prior years' appropriations; (3) extent to which more obligations have been liquidated than previously reported; (4) primary reasons for the reported unliquidated obligations; and (5) actions that have affected or will affect unliquidated obligations.

GAO noted that: (1) for the selected Chemical Demilitarization Program appropriation accounts reviewed, GAO did not find sizeable amounts of unallocated appropriations and unliquidated obligations from prior years that appear to be available for other uses; (2) there were sizeable unliquidated obligations reported from prior years; (3) however, based on GAO's review of $382.1 million of the reported $610.5 million in unliquidated obligations from the Chemical Demilitarization Program for fiscal years 1992-1998, GAO found that $150.6 million had already been liquidated but not recorded in Defense Finance and Accounting Service budget execution reports; (4) further, the remaining $231.5 million in unliquidated obligations in GAO's sample was scheduled to be liquidated by November 2000; (5) reported unliquidated obligations were caused by a number of factors such as delays in obtaining environmental permits and technical delays; (6) at the same time, GAO identified a number of factors that have affected or will have the effect of reducing previously identified unliquidated obligations; (7) the program has a reported $155.7 million in appropriations not yet allocated or obligated to specific program areas; and (8) however, nearly this entire amount involves current year appropriations that can be obligated and liquidated over several years.