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GAO: Base closings to cost more, save less

The Pentagon plans to spend about $10 billion more than originally estimated on base closings and realignments and expects about $200 million less in savings, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday.

The GAO said the Defense Department expects to spend $31 billion to implement the Base Closure and Realignment Commission’s recommendations and predicted net annual savings of $4 billion.

Also, it will take until 2017 for the Defense Department to recover upfront costs, four years longer than the base-closing commission predicted.

The base-closing commission conducted its latest round of decision-making affecting U.S. military bases in the country and abroad in 2005. The GAO said the 2005 round was the biggest, most complex and costliest ever.

Rep. Solomon Ortiz, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee panel on readiness, plans a hearing Wednesday on implementation of the commission’s recommendations.

“This illustrates what we in Congress worried about from the beginning: that the process was flawed and would not achieve the savings DoD boasted it would,” said Ortiz, D-Texas.

The 2005 base-closing commission estimated the Defense Department would save $36 billion over the 20 years ending in 2025 from its recommendations, but the department now expects to save $15 billion, a 58 percent decrease.

Cost estimates are likely to change, too, because of uncertainties associated with some of the closings and realignments and increases in construction and other costs.

Some of the one-time cost increases include:

• $970 million more for consolidating leased locations and closing other locations of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency to Fort Belvoir, Va.

• $700 million more to realign Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and relocate medical care functions.

• $550 million more for establishing the San Antonio Regional Medical Center and realigning enlisted medical training to Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Also, the GAO said the Pentagon will have trouble meeting a mandated September 2011 deadline for implementing the recommendations.

The Defense Department said despite higher costs and reduced savings, the commission recommendations should improve defense capabilities.

The Defense Department agreed with most of the report and said some of the construction increases, beyond inflation, include decisions to build new facilities rather than renovate existing space, enhance quality of life for military personnel with such things as child care and improve training ranges and other training infrastructure.