Summary

The United States needs to continue to assist the government of El Salvador to (1) develop a realistic plan for equipping and operating the National Civilian Police, (2) ensure that the National Civilian Police receive the appropriate priority relative to other Salvadoran government activities, and (3) identify and try to overcome impediments discouraging international donors from providing the help promised to El Salvador in March 1992. The U.S. Military Group in El Salvador also needs to work with the Salvadoran military and national police to (1) locate the 297 hand-held radios and 23 pickup trucks given to the Salvadoran public security forces but now missing from official inventories and (2) retrieve the 876 9-mm semiautomatic pistols that are no longer in the hands of the national police.

GAO found that: (1) National Police and Salvadoran military equipment, which generally was old, inoperable, and in poor condition, was not available for NPC use; (2) equipment transfers would only provide a small fraction of NPC needs, and could lead to long-term maintenance and support problems; (3) NPC will need to acquire most of its equipment through purchases; (4) existing or unused U.S. and Salvadoran police and military facilities will probably not be available for NPC use; (5) the United States provided $17 million in assistance to the public security forces in 1986, but the U.S. agency responsible for monitoring the equipment's use did not have the staff to perform the required periodic reviews or a formal reporting system; (6) the National Police could account for most of the equipment and vehicles the United States provided, but could not trace a significant number of items to a user; (7) U.S. officials believed that El Salvador's proposed allocation of $40.3 million over 2 years for equipment, facilities, and supplies was too low; (8) El Salvador allocated $30 million in 1993 and 1994 for salaries and benefits only; and (9) El Salvador requested additional international donor support from the United Nations for its police force, but its prospects of receiving such aid was small, since previous appeals did not result in any funding.