Summary: GAO reviewed Navy financial operations for fiscal year (FY) 1994, focusing on 15 cases in which the Department of Defense (DOD) reported to Congress that the Navy had violated the Antideficiency Act. GAO found that: (1) 13 of the 15 cases resulted from misunderstanding, confusion, and misapplication of financial management regulations and guidance regarding procurement and fund management; (2) 10 of the cases involved charges to the wrong appropriation account, and 8 of those concerned the purchases of automatic data processing (ADP) equipment; (3) inadequate staff training caused most of the violations; (4) Navy training materials available to operations-level staff do not adequately cover anti-deficiency matters in detail; (5) while the Navy does not have courses about financial management and administrative control of funds, DOD has implemented regulations on fund control procedures and required the Navy to provide adequate training; and (6) Navy efforts to establish antideficiency training could be enhanced by detailed training courses.
