Weapons of Mass Destruction

DOD Report Accounting for Cooperative Threat Reduction Assistance Needs Improvement Gao ID: NSIAD-95-191 September 29, 1995

In 1991, Congress authorized the Defense Department (DOD) to help the former Soviet Union (1) destroy nuclear, chemical, and other weapons of mass destruction (including strategic missiles); (2) transport, store, and safeguard such weapons in connection with their destruction; and (3) prevent the proliferation of such weapons. Under the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, DOD manages various projects to help Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine--the four republics that inherited the former Soviet Union's weapons of mass destruction. This report examines whether DOD had (1) mad progress in auditing and examining program aid; (2) listed its planned audit and examination efforts to be carried out during fiscal year 1995; (3) compiled a list describing the current location and condition of program assistance; and (4) provided a basis for determining whether the assistance was being used for the purposes intended.

GAO found that DOD has: (1) made some progress in auditing and evaluating CTR activities; (2) worked to resolve recipient nations' concerns over audit and examination procedures; (3) conducted five audits at sites in three countries as of July 1995; and (4) planned a monthly audit of other CTR-provided assistance through the end of fiscal year 1995. In addition, GAO found that the DOD report: (1) does not fully present all of DOD audit and examination activities for fiscal year 1995, nor does it describe how DOD plans such activities; (2) does not describe the condition of the assistance and contains outdated and inaccurate listings of CTR assistance deliveries; and (3) raises questions about the basis for the DOD programwide determination that CTR assistance has been accounted for and used for its intended purpose.

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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