Auditors say dorms and other buildings could be repaired.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) official has reported that the Department of Defense (DOD) could invest its unused funds to repair various military facilities. GAO’s Defense Capabilities and Management Director Elizabeth Field stated the environmental and infrastructure challenges the Defense Department is facing are significant and “require urgent attention because they are, in many if not most cases, on track to worsen in coming years.”
“GAO has found that each year DOD doesn’t obligate—and eventually returns to the U.S. Treasury—billions of dollars in operation and maintenance funding, the same type of funding that can be used to fund facility sustainment,” said Director Field, who recently testified before the Senate Armed Services panel on readiness and management support. She added, “We found that the facilities that are so often the first to lose out on funding are the ones most directly tied to quality of life—barracks where junior enlisted service members live, for example, or child care centers.”
The deferred maintenance backlog is approximately $137 billion, “which is only compounding,” Field said, adding that it equates to about one-seventh of DOD’s total budget.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For Defense Secretary Austin as he heads the U.S. military and considers the budget.
- For the secretaries of each of the branches of the U.S. Armed Forces as they oversee budgetary matters.
- For members of Congress as they deliberate government spending and the National Defense Authorization Act.
Sources: Military Times, Air Force Times
