Defense Budget: Army Should More Accurately Portray How It Uses Tank Training Funds

摘要

Congress has expressed concern about the extent to which the Department of Defense (DOD) has moved funds that directly affect military readiness, such as those that finance training, to pay for other subactivities within its operation and maintenance (O&M) account such as real property maintenance and base operations Section 365 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 directed us to examine several issues associated with the movement of training funds. We are responding to the act with a series of reports. We reported last year on the extent that funds were being moved by all the services, pointing out that the Army had moved nearly $1. 1 billion from its training budget during fiscal years 1997 through 1999.2 As agreed with your offices, in this report we assessed in more detail the extent to which Army tank training funds had been moved. Specifically, our objectives were to (1) identify whether the Army was continuing to move training funds planned for its divisions; (2) assess whether reported readiness remained at high levels for these divisions, specifically their armor (i.e., tank) battalions; and (3) assess whether DOD and the Army are providing Congress with complete and consistent information regarding tank training. Appendix I describes our scope and methodology.