Summary: GAO reviewed whether adequate procedures are in place to control the Department of Defense's (DOD) use of funds allocated for emergency and extraordinary (E&E) expenses.
GAO found that: (1) DOD lacks management control of confidential E&E funds because the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) has not issued a regulation governing the use of such funds; (2) although OSD issued a departmentwide regulation governing the use of E&E funds for official representation, DOD did not always follow them; (3) there were instances in which DOD spent E&E funds on entertaining DOD personnel; (4) DOD components repeatedly used E&E funds for expenditures that were not of an emergency or extraordinary nature; (5) the lack of a departmentwide regulation resulted in inconsistencies in DOD component regulations; and (6) two DOD components do not require adequate separation of duties related to checking account responsibilities. GAO also found that: (1) certain fiscal year 1984 and 1985 expenditures for official representation were prohibited by regulations or used for nonemergency situations; and (2) although E&E funds may be spent for any purpose determined to be proper, regulations do not address the use of E&E funds to pay for recurring events or entertaining DOD personnel.
