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GAO-10-562R 1 (2010-05-27)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaansw0001 and id is 1 raw text is: i GA 0 -... . Aco tabilty I Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 May 27, 2010 Congressional Committees Subject: Opportunities to Improve Controls over Department of Defense's Overseas Contingency Operations Cost Reporting From September 2001 through January 2010, Congress provided about $1.023 trillion in supplemental and annual appropriations in response to Department of Defense (DOD) requests for funding to support overseas contingency operations (OCO).' In March 2010, DOD reported obligations2 of about $825 billion attributed to OCO for the period September 2001 through January 2010.3 DOD uses available cost-related information, along with other financial information, to evaluate OCO trends, formulate OCO funding requests, and monitor the costs of overseas operations. In addition, Congress considers this information in its deliberations on DOD requests for additional OCO funding. Our prior reviews have found the financial information in DOD's monthly OCO reports to be of questionable reliability.5 For example, we identified problems in DOD's processes for recording and reporting obligations, such as not including all OCO costs and the lack of a systematic process for ensuring that data are correctly entered into those systems. Consequently, we concluded DOD's reported OCO costs 'Starting with the fiscal year 2009 supplemental budget request in April 2009, the administration has replaced the term, Global War on Terrorism with Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO). 2Obligations are a definite commitment that creates a legal liability of the government for the payment of goods and services ordered or received, or a legal duty on the part of the United States that could mature into a legal liability by virtue of actions on the part of the other party beyond the control of the United States. 3The approximately $198 billion difference between DOD's appropriations and reported obligations can generally be attributed to the remaining unobligated balances of the following: annual fiscal year 2010 appropriations; multiyear procurement appropriations; military construction appropriations; and research, development, test, and evaluation appropriations; as well as to obligations for classified and other items, which DOD considers to be non-OCO related, that are not reported in DOD's OCO reports. 4For purposes of this report, cost-related means appropriations, obligations, and disbursements that DOD attributes to OCO. 'For more information see GAO, Global War on Terrorism: DOD Needs to More Accurately Capture and Report the Costs of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, GAO-09-302 (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 17, 2009); Global War on Terrorism: DOD Needs to Take Action to Encourage Fiscal Discipline and Optimize the Use of Tools Intended to Improve GWOT Cost Reporting, GAO-08- 68 (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 6, 2007); and Global War on Terrorism: DOD Needs to Improve the Reliability of Cost Data and Provide Additional Guidance to Control Costs, GAO-05-882 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 21, 2005). GAO-10-562R OCO Cost Reporting

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