Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) fiscal year (FY) 1987 reprogramming actions to determine the effectiveness of and ways to improve its budget reprogramming process.
GAO found that: (1) during FY 1987, Congress reviewed 69 DOD reprogramming requests, representing about 0.5 percent of total DOD funds obligated for the affected appropriation accounts; (2) DOD complied with mutually established congressional and DOD guidance for reprogramming requests; (3) the majority of reprogramming requests significantly exceeded the minimum dollar threshold for requiring congressional review; (4) the DOD reprogramming request form lacked key financial data that would completely and accurately describe the status of reprogramming actions; (5) the DOD semiannual report to Congress did not summarize reprogramming by fiscal year or highlight items of interest to Congress, and mixed congressionally approved reprogramming with pending reprogramming requests and DOD-approved requests; (6) congressional committees acted on about half of the FY 1987 reprogramming requests within 90 days, but DOD believed that delays restricted the use of funds for too long and discouraged reprogramming; (7) House committees' use of an exception basis for reprogramming requests resulted in faster processing than by Senate committees, which issued a written decision on each request; and (8) Congress did not have review or notification requirements for DOD shifting of substantial funds, sometimes for purposes other than originally proposed, among subaccounts.
