GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE WASHINGTON DC, Solis, William M., Schmitt, David A., Brown, Renee, Cristinzio, Frank, Hartig, Luke, Helt, Brent, Rogers, Donna M., Song, Yong, Storts, Maria, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE WASHINGTON DC, Solis, William M., Schmitt, David A., Brown, Renee, Cristinzio, Frank, Hartig, Luke, Helt, Brent, Rogers, Donna M., Song, Yong, and Storts, Maria
Congress has appropriated billions of dollars for equipment repair, replacement, and recapitalization, collectively known as equipment reset. Because of the potential for equipment reset costs to affect the Department of Defense's (DoD) future budget requirements and related readiness concerns, GAO initiated this review under the Comptroller General's authority. GAO's objectives were to determine the extent to which the Army and Marine Corps did the following: (1) tracked and reported equipment reset expenditures in a way that confirmed that funds appropriated for reset were expended for that purpose, and (2) could show assurance that their reset strategies would sustain equipment availability while meeting ongoing operational requirements. GAO reviewed equipment reset policies and analyzed related budget data. GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense do the following: (1) improve DoD's reporting of obligations and expenditures within the procurement accounts, and (2) assess the services' approaches to equipment reset to ensure that their priorities address equipment shortages in the near term to equip units that are preparing for deployment. DoD did not agree with these recommendations. As a result, GAO is suggesting that Congress direct DoD to revise its Financial Management regulation pertaining to procurement funds., Report to Congressional Committees.