Drug Control

The Defense Department (DOD) supports the nation's counterdrug efforts by providing military personnel, detection and monitoring equipment, intelligence support, communication systems, and training. However, DOD has yet to develop performance measures to assess the effectiveness of its contributions. DOD has, among other things, developed a database to capture information that can be used to evaluate the relative performance of its detection and monitoring equipment. DOD support for international drug control efforts has fallen significantly since 1992. The decline in DOD assets used for counterdrug efforts is due to (1) the lower priority assigned to the counterdrug mission compared with that assigned to other military missions that might involve contact with hostile forces such as peacekeeping and (2) overall reductions in defense budgets and force levels. DOD officials believe that their operations are more efficient today than in the past and that this has partially offset the decline in assets available for counterdrug operations. Because of a lack of data, however, the impact of the reduced level of DOD support on drug trafficking is unknown.

GAO noted that: (1) DOD has plans and strategies that support the goal of reducing the nation's illegal drug supply by providing military personnel, detection and monitoring equipment, intelligence support, communication systems, and training; (2) however, DOD has not yet developed a set of performance measures to assess its effectiveness in contributing to this goal but has taken some initial steps to develop such measures; (3) these steps include the development of a database to capture information that can be used to assess the relative performance of DOD's detection and monitoring assets; (4) DOD's level of support to international drug control efforts has declined significantly since 1992; (5) some of the decline in air and maritime support has been partially offset by increased support provided by the Coast Guard and Customs Service; (6) nevertheless, DOD officials have stated that coverage in key, high-threat drug-trafficking areas in the Caribbean and in cocaine-producing countries is limited; (7) the decline in assets DOD uses to carry out its counterdrug responsibilities is due to: (a) the lower priority assigned to the counterdrug mission compared with that assigned to other military missions that might involve contact with hostile forces such as peacekeeping; and (b) overall reductions in defense budgets and force levels; (8) DOD officials believe that their operations are more efficient today than in the past and that this has partially offset the decline in assets available for counterdrug operations; (9) because of a lack of data, however, the impact of the reduced level of DOD support on drug trafficking is unknown; (10) DOD faces several challenges in providing counterdrug support to host-nation military and law enforcement organizations; (11) these organizations often lack the capability to operate and repair equipment and effectively utilize training provided by the United States; and (12) in addition, DOD faces restrictions on providing training support to some foreign military units and sharing intelligence information with certain host-nation counterdrug organizations because of past evidence of human rights violations and corruption within these organizations.

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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