Action Needed To Improve Timeliness Of Army Billings For Sales To Foreign Countries V. AFMD-81-61

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AFMD-81-61 1 (1981-04-30)

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UNITED STATES GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE

ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL WASHINGTON, D.C. 20548
MANAGEMWNT DIVISION 115076

B-203001 APRIL 30,1981

The Honorable Caspar W. Weinberger
The Secretary of Defense

Dear Mr. Secretary:

Subject: jAction Needed to Improve Timeliness of-rmy
Billings for Sales to Foreign Countriej
(AFMD-81-61)

This report discusses our review of the Army accounting
system used to bill and collect for foreign military sales
from foreign countries' trust fund accounts. Our review
showed that:

--The Army has not promptly collected from trust fund
accounts for goods and services delivered to foreign
customers.

--Serious weaknesses exist in the Army billing system,
and many deliveries were not billed at the time of
shipment as required.

--When the Army's procedures provide for obtaining
advance funds, the amounts requested do not always
recover costs.

The following summarizes our audit coverage, discusses
the problems we found, and recommends actions needed to cor-
rect accounting system weaknesses that delay billing and
collection for foreign military sales.

OBJECTIVES, SCOPE, AND METHODOLOGY

The overall objective of our review was to assess the ef-
fectiveness of the Army's accounting system for collecting from
foreign governments' trust funds. More specific objectives
were to

--evaluate the efficiency and accuracy of the accounting
systems the Departments of the Army and Defense use
for prompt collection from trust funds, and

--determine the extent to which deliveries have been
made to foreign countries without proper reimbursement
to Army appropriated funds.

(903010)

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