GAO on munitions demilitarization

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

===========================================================
Graduate in less than 13 months with AIU?s Online virtual 
campus. Classrooms and student service as close as your 
computer. Highly accredited, study anytime ? anywhere.
http://click.topica.com/caaccM2aVxieSbnA7rua/ AIU
===========================================================



Defense Management: Continuing Questionable Reliance on Commercial
Contracts to Demilitarize Excess Ammunition When Unused, Environmentally
Friendly Capacity Exists at Government Facilities  

GAO-04-427R  April 2, 2004  

Official Summary

In April 2001, we [the General Accounting Office] reported that the Army
Materiel Command's guidance required that 50 percent of the excess
conventional ammunition demilitarization budget--a figure for which we
did not find any analytical basis--be set aside for commercial firms
that use environmentally friendly demilitarization processes. This
resulted in the retention and underutilization of environmentally
friendly demilitarization capabilities at government facilities and in
additional program costs. We thus recommended that the Department of
Defense (DOD) develop a plan in consultation with Congress that included
procedures for assessing the appropriate mix of government and
commercial sector capacity needed to demilitarize excess ammunition. Our
intent was to have DOD reexamine the cost-effectiveness of using
commercial versus government facilities to demilitarize excess
ammunition. Over the past several months we have conducted work to
determine the specific actions taken to implement our recommendation. We
made extensive use of our prior work as a baseline to compare the
changes in demilitarization capacity and utilization at government-owned
facilities since our prior report. We conducted our analysis of DOD's
demilitarization program in accordance with generally accepted
government auditing standards. The purpose of this letter is to note
that (1) the Army has taken only limited steps in response to our
recommendation and (2) additional actions are needed to address our recommendation.

The Army continues to set aside 50 percent of the demilitarization
budget to commercial firms, resulting in program inefficiencies and
additional costs. In commenting on our recommendation in the April 2001
report, DOD stated that the Army was preparing a study for Congress, due
September 30, 2001, that could be used to address the mix of government
and commercial sector capacity needed to demilitarize excess ammunition.
The Army study concluded that, based upon its analysis of different
commercial/government facility mixes, more ammunition could be
demilitarized through greater reliance on existing environmentally
friendly processes available at government-owned facilities.
Nonetheless, the excess ammunition demilitarization program is still
operated on Army Materiel Command guidance that requires a 50/50 split
of funding between government and commercial demilitarization projects.
This predetermined funding allocation, combined with increased
government facility capacity to demilitarize excess ammunition and
paying a commercial firm to have ammunition demilitarized by government
employees, exacerbates the costs and related inefficiencies to operate
the program.

for a formatted version of the summary, with a link to the entire
report, see
http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/details.php?rptno=GAO-04-427R




-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

===========================================================
Domains as low as $4.95! 
Limited Time! ICANN Accredited GoDaddy! 
http://click.topica.com/caaccM5aVxieSbnA7ruf/ GoDaddy
===========================================================

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CPEO: A DECADE OF SUCCESS.  Your generous support will ensure that our 
important work on military and environmental issues will continue.  
Please consider one of our donation options.  Thank you.
http://www.groundspring.org/donate/index.cfm?ID=2086-0|721-0