United States Coast Guard's Reported Anti-Deficiency Violations for Shore Construction and Improvement Projects for Fiscal Years 2003 through 2009

摘要

In our report Maintenance, Rehabilitation, and Upgrading of Shore Facilities in Support of United States Coast Guard Missions (OIG-08-24, issued February 2008), we identified that the U.S. Coast Guard improperly used maintenance funds to augment and compensate for underfunded shore acquisition, construction, and improvement appropriations. Subsequent to our 2008 report, the Coast Guard changed its policy to conform with legislation, and conducted an internal review identifying 317 improvement projects as Anti-Deficiency Act violations, totaling $131 million for fiscal years 2003 through 2007. The objective of this audit was to determine the accuracy of the Coast Guard's reported 317 potential Anti-Deficiency Act violations. We examined the Coast Guard's methodology for identifying the reportable violations, as well as the effectiveness of the Coast Guards new policies and procedures for compliance with statutory authorities as they apply to maintenance funds and acquisition, construction, and improvement expenditures. We concur with the Coast Guard's methodology used to identify the potential Anti-Deficiency Act violations but identified minor discrepancies with the results. We are recommending that the Coast Guard notify the Secretary that there were 317 Anti-Deficiency Act violations totaling approximately $138 million. The violations were caused by Coast Guard policies and procedures that inappropriately permitted the use of maintenance funds for minor shore construction.