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GAO-02-540R 1 (2002-03-20)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptaotb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: S=GAO Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 March 20, 2002 The Honorable John McHugh Chairman The Honorable Vic Snyder Ranking Member Military Personnel Subcommittee Committee on Armed Services House of Representatives Subject: Military Personnel Strengths in the Army National Guard The accuracy of reported personnel strength and training participation rates has a direct impact on the reliability of the Army National Guard's budget and the allocation of funds to individual states. If either the reported strength levels or the participation rates for a given fiscal year are more or less than the actual numbers, the funds required to pay Guard personnel will be either overstated or understated. Congressional concerns about the reported military personnel strengths of the Army National Guard have emerged as a result of recent media coverage of the Guard's so- called ghost soldiers.' As a result of those concerns, you asked us to provide information on (1) the Guard's personnel strength levels and training participation rates and (2) the Guard's efforts to improve the accuracy of reported strength levels and participation rates. To respond to your request, we drew on findings from our annual review of the Department of Defense's military personnel budget requests and the Army National Guard's military personnel data for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 and the first quarter of fiscal year 2002. The scope and methodology for our review is discussed on page 5. Results in Brief The Army National Guard's fiscal years 2000 and 2001 funding requests were overstated by $42.9 million and $31.6 million, respectively, because the Guard used inaccurate military strength and participation rates to develop its projected and actual military force levels. Additionally, to develop its training budget needs, it used a mathematically derived training participation rate based on expected program costs rather than on the actual number of personnel being trained. By using these inaccurate figures, the Guard overstated its overall military personnel strength and ' Ghost soldier is a slang term used for soldiers who remain on strength reports but who are, in fact, no longer participating in training and who should be removed from these reports. GAO-02-540R National Guard Personnel Strengths

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