Better Reporting Needed on Use of Transferred Arms, GAO Says
The State Department, which relies mainly on the Defense Department to identify violations of end-use requirements for U.S. arms transfers, should do more to ensure DOD knows what types of incidents it's interested in, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Sept. 16.
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Although DOD was tracking more than 150 potential violations as of February, some incidents may go unnoticed due to the lack of “clear guidance” from State, the report said.
The GAO also found that State doesn’t consistently document the findings of its investigations, depriving it of information it could use to make decisions about future arms transfers. The department also lacks formal procedures for determining what end-use violations it should report to Congress; as a result, lawmakers may not have information they need to conduct oversight.
End-use requirements prohibit recipients from using defense articles and services for unauthorized purposes, transferring them to unauthorized entities or failing to secure them.