Ship Sales and Exchange Programs of the Maritime Administration and Other Federal Agencies

The Maritime Administration has not adequately implemented the recommendations made by the Department of Commerce Office of Audits in a December 1975 report.

The internal auditors stated that the Maritime Administration did not conduct onsite vessel appraisals to establish the estimated weight of the vessels being sold for scrapping or nontransportation use. Independent onsite appraisals would provide better estimates of vessel weight, at little additional cost, than the estimates currently used. Although the Maritime Administration has identified the factors used in setting the lowest acceptable price and has recently begun to list these factors in its sales invitations, it has not developed any written procedures explaining how these factors are used to determine the lowest acceptable price and has not included such prices in its sales invitations. A manual has been developed which contains some of the more basic policies and procedures governing the ship sales program, but some pertinent areas were not included.

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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