[Prize Drawing at Army Recruiting Events]

The Army requested a decision regarding whether it could use appropriated funds it received for recruiting efforts to pay for posters it planned to give away as prizes at national student conventions. The Army advised that the prize drawings would: (1) attract students to its recruiting booth; and (2) provide it with addresses of students for further recruitment efforts. GAO held that: (1) it had no objection to the Army's use of recruitment appropriations to pay for the posters, since they helped to fulfill the Army's mission to conduct intensive recruitment efforts; and (2) the Army had a regulation prohibiting the use of gifts of more than slight monetary value for recruiting efforts. Accordingly, the Army could use the appropriated funds for the posters if it determined that such use was permissible under its own regulations.