Military operations and maintenance outside the U.S. received nearly 76 percent of the Department of Defense’s $66.8 billion total overseas contingency operations budget in fiscal year 2018, according to a new watchdog report. The Government Accountability Office said Monday that most of DoD’s OCO funds went to in-theater base support operations, ship operations, equipment maintenance and repair, transportation and security forces training in the past year.
“In fiscal year 2018, Congress authorized $48.6 billion and appropriated $50.7 billion for operation and maintenance overseas contingency operations and DoD reported obligating $46.5 billion,†GAO said. However, the government watchdog noted funds for some of the overseas military activities exceed congressionally directed amounts due to funding transfers and re-programming efforts made by DoD.
GAO reviewed the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2018 OCO funds under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019.Â
