Military Commissaries

Military commissaries, particularly the appropriated fund support for their operations, have been the subject of controversy for years. Questions have been raised concerning their justification, appropriated fund support, and management.

Although the Congress originally intended that commissaries be operated only where food is not conveniently available at reasonable prices, in 1977 at least 109 of the 265 U.S. commissaries were in metropolitan areas. The services have not sufficiently justified the need for the magnitude of commissaries that currently exists, nor have they substantiated their claims that they are needed as recruitment and retention benefits. For fiscal year 1978, commissaries received an estimated $544 million in direct and indirect subsidies, and it is apparent that they are capable of assuming more of their costs thereby reducing the taxpayers' burden. The Congress has repeatedly requested improvements in commissary management and operations, and studies have concluded that costs can be reduced and still result in improved service to commissary patrons. Eliminating the subsidies would give commissaries an incentive to operate much more economically and could result in savings in excess of those previously projected. Also, the Air Force is not complying with the requirement to partially offset appropriated civilian personnel costs with income from cents-off coupons since it is not depositing the income in the correct Treasury account.

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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