The Department of Defense needs to strengthen its annual
review and certification process for paying and supporting
military personnel, for which over $109 billion was
appropriated in fiscal 2003, the Government Accountability
Office has said.
It said that once that money is appropriated, the military
services are responsible for ensuring that the funds are
properly obligated and disbursed,” but found that, “the
military services are not matching obligations to
disbursements at the individual disbursement transaction
level in all of the years that disbursements can occur as
required by the Financial Management Regulation.”
Further, the services are not reporting obligation balances
for budget submission as directed by Congress, which makes
it nearly impossible to oversee how “MILPERS” funds are
actually used, according to GAO-05-87R.
It said the Office of the Secretary of Defense has not
specifically instructed the services in the financial
management regulation requiring them to review MILPERS
obligations at the level of budget justifications
