GAO BRAC attack

A new report from the General Accounting Office concludes the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round - the one that almost led to the closing of the Naval Submarine Base in Groton - has been a major fiscal failure.

The cost to implement the BRAC has proved far more expensive than estimated and the savings far less. If current trends continue, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) cannot expect to recoup its up-front costs to implement BRAC until 2018, five years later than the BRAC Commission's estimates, according to the GAO report. And that is probably a best-case scenario.

To implement BRAC 2005, DOD now plans to spend about $35 billion, $10 billion more than it spent to implement the four previous BRAC rounds combined and a whopping 67 percent more than the BRAC Commission originally estimated.

The GAO report also shows that the DOD will not save what it expected. By 2025 DOD expects to have saved $10.9 billion in constant fiscal year 2005 dollars, far short of the $36 billion in savings the BRAC Commission had predicted over the 20-year period. And, according to the GAO report dated Nov. 13, "DOD's net annual recurring savings estimates may be overstated."

The GAO report suggests that the DOD may have tried to do too much. It calls the latest BRAC round "the biggest, most complex and costliest ever … affecting over 800 defense locations" and relocation of 123,000 personnel. According to the GAO, 76 out of 182 BRAC recommendations will result in no net savings over 20 years.

These facts again demonstrate the decision to reverse the original BRAC recommendation to close the Groton submarine base was the right one. Closing that base would likely have been another money loser, while severely damaging the state economy and weakening the submarine service in the process.

Given this report, there should be no rush to consider more base closings and realignments any time soon. The DOD needs to get a better handle on implementing the last BRAC before it tackles another.