Environmental Liabilities: Long-Term Fiscal Planning Hampered by Control Weaknesses and Uncertainties in the Federal Government's Estimates
Abstract
The nation's military installations and nuclear weapons production facilities have accumulated many types of waste and contamination over the years. The federal government estimated its environmental liability to clean up this waste at $249 billion in fiscal year 2004, representing the federal government's third largest reported liability. It represents a significant future outflow of funds at the same time as many other competing demands for federal dollars, but is currently not auditable. GAO was asked to address (1) the nature and extent of the government's environmental liabilities, (2) the extent to which Energy's and Defense's processes and controls were designed to estimate and report environmental liabilities in accordance with federal accounting standards, and (3) the nature and types of uncertainties that are currently not estimable but could affect the cost of cleanup. GAO is making eight recommendations to help Defense improve its internal controls over its environmental liabilities by improving its financial management guidance and processes. We are also making a recommendation to help Energy improve its process for ensuring all litigation for potential disclosure is documented. Both Defense and Energy concurred with the recommendations, and described corrective actions being taken to address them.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- AD1179456
Entities
People
- Bennet Severson
- Charles Hodge
- Delores Lee
- Doreen Eng
- Jenny Li
- Jessica Gray
- Linda M. Calbom
- Mary A. Hardy
- Molly Boyle
- Nancy Kintner-meyer
- Rick Kusman
- Stan Stenerson
- Stephen Lipscomb
- Tom Perry
- William Bates
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office