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Military Base Closures: Unexpended Funds Raise Questions About Fiscal Year 2001 Funding Needs

NSIAD-00-170 Published: Jul 07, 2000. Publicly Released: Jul 07, 2000.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) base closure accounts and its budget request for base closure activities, focusing on: (1) how trends in base realignment and closure appropriations in recent years and estimates for future years compare to the fiscal year (FY) 2001 budget request; and (2) unliquidated obligations and unobligated balances from prior years' appropriations and the extent to which DOD considered these balances and obligations in preparing the FY 2001 budget request.

Recommendations

Matter for Congressional Consideration

Matter Status Comments
In appropriating base realignment and closure funds for FY 2001, Congress may wish to take into consideration the large balances of unexpended funds, particularly in DOD's environmental sub-accounts, and DOD's limited action in taking into account the potential availability of some of these funds to offset its 2001 budget request.
Closed – Implemented
Acting on a matter for Congressional consideration included in GAO briefings and the subject report, Congress reduced the Department of Defense's fiscal year 2001 budget request for Base Realignment and Closure by $150 million.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense The Secretary of Defense should require that the services perform complete and timely reviews of all base realignment and closure unliquidated balances, close out completed contracts, identify potentially idle funds, deobligate funds where appropriate, and consider the availability of these funds in formulating new budget requests.
Closed – Implemented
According to a DOD Comptroller official responsible for base realignment and closure budget requests, each of the military services took some action to review base realignment and closure of unliquidated balances, closing out completed contracts, identifying potentially idle funds, and deobligating funds where appropriate. For example, the Naval Audit Service completed a detail review of base realignment and closure funding balances for the Navy. Where appropriate, the Navy deobligated unneeded funds and used them to pay for other base realignment and closure costs. According to the DOD official, the other military services completed a similar review of their base realignment and closure funding balances.

Full Report

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Topics

Base closuresBase realignmentsBudget authorityBudget cutsDefense appropriationsDefense budgetsFuture budget projectionsMilitary basesMilitary cost controlUnexpended budget balancesEnvironmental cleanups