Computation of Cost-of-Living Allowances for Uniformed Personnel Could be More Accurate

Abstract

Our review indicates that the Department of Defense's (DOD's) use of an outdated spendable income table on which to base COLA payments and adjustments for environmental factors results in undercompensation for some uniformed personnel and in overcompensation for others. Further, we found that several deficiencies in DOD's data collection and computation practices may result in inaccurate COLA payments. Our objectives were to analyze and identify inconsistencies in administering the COLAS and to find ways of improving methodologies used to compute COLAS. We did not examine the makeup of the market basket, nor did we verify the prices collected. We made our review during calendar year 1981.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 25, 1982
Accession Number
AD1176845

Entities

People

  • Clifford I. Gould

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Clothing
  • Computations
  • Consumers
  • Deficiencies
  • Department Of State
  • Enlisted Personnel
  • Families (Human)
  • Governments
  • Military Personnel
  • Money
  • Personnel Management
  • Retail
  • Statistics
  • Surveys
  • United States

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Geospatial Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence Analytics
  • Industrial Economics