American Battle Monuments Commission: New Approach to Forecasting Exchange Rates for its Foreign Currency Fluctuation Account
Abstract
The conference report for the Fiscal Year 2005 Consolidated Appropriations Act required that we review the past and current methodologies used by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to estimate exchange rates used in preparing the budgets for ABMC's foreign currency fluctuation account. This account is intended to maintain the spending power of funds appropriated for ABMC operations in the event that the U.S. dollar depreciates against the currencies used to pay for these operations, which include designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining permanent American military burial grounds in foreign countries. In light of recent low foreign currency fluctuation account levels, the appropriations committees conferees were concerned with the failure of OMB to adequately address the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations on ABMC in its original budget submission for fiscal year 2005, or through a supplementary budget request. In response to this mandate, we examined (1) ABMC's method of forecasting exchange rates in preparing budgets for the foreign currency fluctuation account prior to its fiscal year 2006 budget submission and OMB guidance on that method; (2) changes that occurred in the ABMC foreign currency fluctuation fund as the dollar depreciated in value relative to the currencies used by ABMC in its operations; and (3) changes that ABMC made in preparing its fiscal year 2006 budget submission. To accomplish these objectives we interviewed OMB officials and ABMC's budget officer, and reviewed ABMC documents and OMB and Department of Defense (DOD) budget guidance. We also reviewed balances of the ABMC foreign currency fluctuation account for fiscal years 2000-2005, levels of the euro-dollar exchange rate over the same period, and ABMC's budget request for fiscal year 2006. We conducted our work between April and September 2005 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 20, 2005
- Accession Number
- AD1167473
Entities
People
- Yvonne Jones
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office