Review of Coast Guard's Military Pay and Allowance System

Gao ID: 100663 March 25, 1977

GAO examined military pay records for January through June 1976 at Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

A Coast Guard-wide statistical sample of 299 pay records--278 regularly closed and 21 irregularly closed pay records was examined. Forty-one of the pay records on the sample had 46 errors amounting to $2,619, representing an error rate of 13.7 percent. An extrapolation suggests that there may have been 5,363 errors in the 39,118 pay records in the universe. Eleven errors in federal income tax withholding rates were found. These errors were caused by the storekeepers using the wrong line or column of the tax tables, indicating carelessness and inadequate supervisory review. A sample of 21 of the irregularly closed pay records had an error rate of 19 percent. Experience in auditing irregularly closed pay records in the other military services had consistently shown a high rate of error in final leave settlements.

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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