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GAO-05-470R 1 (2005-04-26)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptarnj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 



    G AO


         Aco untability * Integrity * Reliability
United States Government Accountability Office
Washington, D.C. 20548



                                   April 26, 2005

                                   The Honorable John Warner
                                   Chairman
                                   The Honorable Carl Levin
                                   Ranking Minority Member
                                   Committee on Armed Services
                                   United States Senate

                                   The Honorable Duncan Hunter
                                   Chairman
                                   The Honorable Ike Skelton
                                   Ranking Minority Member
                                   Committee on Armed Services
                                   House of Representatives

                                   Subject: Policy and Criteria Used to Assess Potential Commissary Store
                                   Closures

                                   As part of its pay and benefits package for service members, the
                                   Department of Defense (DOD) operates supermarket-type stores called
                                   commissaries to provide service members and their families with groceries
                                   and authorized household supplies at the lowest practical price. The
                                   Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), DOD's designated agency for
                                   managing commissary stores, operates 273 commissary stores in the
                                   United States and abroad. To ensure efficient operation of the commissary
                                   stores, all commissary stores are assessed annually to determine whether
                                   there should be any operational changes or possible store closures. The
                                   Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness), which
                                   has oversight responsibility for DeCA operations, can either endorse or
                                   change the results of the assessments or direct additional actions. In
                                   August 2003, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and
                                   Readiness) proposed that the military services consider the closure of
                                   14 commissary stores not previously under consideration for closure.
                                   Subsequently, various members of Congress raised questions about these
                                   proposed actions, including whether DOD's policy and criteria for deciding
                                   whether to close commissary stores adequately considered the impact on
                                   quality of life of service members and their dependents. Congress, in
                                   enacting the fiscal year 2005 defense authorization act, included a
                                   provision mandating that quality of life be a primary consideration in the
                                   closure decision-making process.


GAO-05-470R Defense Infrastructure


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