Global War on Terrorism: DOD Needs to More Accurately Capture and Report the Costs of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom

Since September 11, 2001, Congress has provided about 808 billion to the Department of Defense DoD for the Global War on Terrorism GWOT in addition to funding in DoDs base budget. Prior GAO reports have found DoDs reported GWOT cost data unreliable and found problems with transparency over certain costs. In response, DoD has made several changes to its cost-reporting procedures. Congress has shown interest in increasing the transparency of DoDs cost reporting and funding requests for GWOT. Under the Comptroller Generals authority to conduct evaluations on his own initiative, GAO assessed the following 1 DoDs progress in improving the accuracy and reliability of its GWOT cost reporting, and 2 DoDs methodology for reporting GWOT costs by contingency operation. For this engagement, GAO analyzed GWOT cost data and applicable guidance, as well as DoDs corrective actions. GAO is recommending that DoD do the following 1 establish a methodology for determining what portion of GWOT costs is attributable to Operation Iraqi Freedom versus Operation Enduring Freedom, and 2 develop a plan and timetable for evaluating whether certain expenses are incremental and should continue to be funded outside of DoDs base budget. DoD agreed with the first recommendation and partially agreed with the second.