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CED-77-35 1 (1977-01-31)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaabzd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: DOCUMENT RESUME 00651 - [A0751127] [Department of Defense's Compliance with Public Law 92-545]. CED-77-35; B-133102. January 31, 1977. 7 pp. + enclosure (1 pp.). Report to Secretary, Departaent of Defense; by Henry Eschiege, Director, Community ind Economic Development Div. Issue Area: Domestic Housing and Community Develcpment (2100). Contact: Community and Economic Development Div. Budget Function: National Defense: Depaztment of Defense - Military (except procurement & contracts) (051). Organization Concerned: Department of the Air Force; Department of the Army; Department of the Navy. Congressional Relevance. House Committee on Armed Services; Senate Committee on Armed Services. Authority: (P.L. 92-545; 42 U.S.C. 1594j-1(a)). rOD Instruction 7220.16. Under P.L. 92-545, DOD-owned family housing can be declared inadequate for public quarters and rented to military personnel with an apprcpriate reduction of basic allowance for quarters (BAQ). GAO performed a review of housing management at five DOD installations. Findings/Conclus.ons: The installatio~s studied were not insuring that income from operating inadequate family housing covered expenses, as the law requires. Fiscal year 1975 and 1976 family housing expense reports for these installations showed that housing expenses allocated to inadequate housing exceeded rental income; however, onlj Fort Bragg raised the rental rate in the second quarter of fiscal year 1976 in an attempt to cover expenses. Even at the higher rate, which was 100 percent of the occupant's BAQ, expenses exceeded rental income for the last 8 months of the fiscal year. DOD's cost accounting system for family housing expenses did not roquize allocating administrative and some maintenance expenses to the individual housing categories. This precluded a valid coaparison of income and expenses for inadequate housing. It appeared that Fort Bragg and UacDill air Force Base had improperly declared some housing units as inadequate. Recommendations: An appropriate charge for inadequate family housing should be established when the expenses tu operate and maintain the units exceed the income produced by the -;5 percent forfeiture level. The issues involving retemtion of inadequate housing costing more than the total BAQ forfeiture should be studied and the resulting proposal should be discussed with the Armed Services and Appropriations Committees of Congress. DOD Instruction 7220.16 should be revised to require that all administrative, maintenance, equipment replacement and repair, and household furnishing expenses be allocated among the different housing categories. The justifications that the military services used to declare family housing units inadequate shuld be reviewed. Units improperly classified as