Pursuant to congressional requests, GAO examined whether the Military Sealift Command (MSC) complied with applicable laws for ship reflagging and repair work done in foreign shipyards or repair facilities.

GAO found that: (1) MSC is not required to have a foreign-flagged ship reflagged in a U.S. shipyard; (2) MSC charted a foreign-flagged ship to return shipping capabilities to the level that existed before the Persian Gulf War; (3) two ships had some repair work done at overseas shipyards; (4) MSC does not require U.S. shipyards to repair time-chartered ships; and (5) from 1988 to 1991, U.S. shipyards performed most repairs, except for emergency repairs and those necessary to meet Persian Gulf War scheduling requirements.