Environmental Liabilities: Cleanup Costs From Certain DOD Operations Are Not Being Reported

[摘要] A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO examined the environmental cleanup costs of ongoing operations of the Department of Defense (DOD). These include general property, plant, and equipment facilities or other assets that are being operated or are in use at DOD installations. GAO found that DOD has not developed policies, procedures, and methodologies to ensure that cleanup costs required for all of its ongoing and inactive or closed operations are identified, consistently estimated, and appropriately reported. As a result, DOD's financial statements and environmental reports continue to underreport environmental liabilities and related long-term budgetary needs. The military installations GAO visited had a total of 221 sites with estimated cleanup costs of $259 million. Of these, only 45 sites with estimated cleanup costs of $61 million were being reported for the Defense Environmental Restoration Program Annual Report to Congress, and only that amount was likely included in DOD's financial statements. GAO found DOD was not reporting 149 sites related to ongoing operations with estimated cleanup costs of $91 million and 27 inactive and closed operations with estimated cleanup costs of $107 million. The environmental offices at the six installations GAO visited had comprehensive records for the installation sites subject to cleanup requirements. Although these records were reasonably accurate, the records used to maintain accountability over related land, buildings, and structures were significantly flawed. If properly maintained, the real property records should play a significant role in ensuring the accuracy of environmental site records."

[发布日期] 2001-12-14 [发布机构] United States. General Accounting Office.

[关键词] Government accountability -- United States.;natural resources and environment;environmental liabilities;letter report