Summary

GAO assessed the Army's methods of identifying and justifying the need for construction of new dining facilities in Europe.

GAO found that unneeded construction was planned because the Army did not properly consider existing excess capacity and did not use proper planning factors in computing new requirements. Further, the Army often requests dining facility projects without adequately considering unused capacity in existing facilities. GAO noted that, if existing facilities were fully used and new ones were sized according to Department of Defense criteria, four of the seven projects reviewed by GAO could be canceled at a savings in construction and related costs of over $7.5 million.