Savings in base closings continuing to dwindle
Savings in base closings continuing to dwindle

By Chris Casteel Comments 5
Published: December 13, 2007

WASHINGTON — The cost of moving the Air Defense Artillery school from Fort Bliss in Texas to Fort Sill has risen from $247 million to $326 million, according to a new government report that says the Pentagon will save far less than first estimated from the 2005 base closure round.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress' auditing arm, says the 2005 round of closures will cost far more than expected and won't yield any savings until after 2017. Ultimately, the round will save the Pentagon about $15 billion by 2025, far less than the $36 billion estimated, the office said.

Members of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness expressed disappointment Wednesday that the pain to many communities resulting from the largest-ever round of base closures wasn't going to result in the kind of savings the Pentagon and the Base Realignment and Closure Commission had projected.

Lawmakers are reluctant to approve base closure rounds because of the anxiety caused in communities around the country and the potential for huge job losses in some. Opponents of base closures argue that the estimated savings routinely fail to materialize, though previous rounds have resulted in substantial savings, according to the accountability office.

No ‘realistic data'

Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, the chairman of the subcommittee, said the base realignment and closure process, often referred to as BRAC, was flawed in 2005.

"It did not obtain realistic data upon which to base sound business decisions and it was again tainted by politics that were supposed to be removed,” Ortiz said. "After reading the GAO's report, I was initially pleased to see that over 20 years, the (Defense) Department expects to save $15 billion. However, I was surprised to find out that this is a 58 percent decrease from what the BRAC commission estimated.”

Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., acknowledged that closing and realigning bases is supposed to be about more than money — that it's primarily supposed to allow the Defense Department to consolidate its operations in a way that stresses military value.

But Forbes said the law passed by Congress allowing the 2005 round required the secretary of defense to certify that the recommendations made by the Pentagon would save money in each military department in six years.

"In fact, the secretary of defense did certify that the departments of the Army, the Navy and Air Force would each go into the black by 2011, not 2017, a full six years later, as reported today by the GAO,” the Republican said.

"Let me be clear: The subcommittee is quite concerned that the department failed to achieve a legally required, secretary-of-defense certified objective by six years,” he said.

Inflation also blamed

A top Pentagon official blamed inflation in construction costs for much of the problem in meeting the 2005 estimates.

Closing bases and shifting missions around typically requires large upfront costs, much of it related to new construction at bases that are receiving more troops and activities.

Fort Sill, an artillery training post in southwestern Oklahoma, has embarked on a massive construction project to absorb the Air Defense Artillery training school and center moving from Fort Bliss.

The air defense artillery school is being combined with the field artillery school already at the post.

That recommendation was approved by the BRAC commission, along with a separate recommendation to move an Air Defense Artillery brigade from Fort Bliss to Fort Sill.

The moves could add as many as 10,000 active duty personnel, students and family members at the post.

Army budget documents reviewed by The Oklahoman earlier this year showed an estimated $400 million in construction would be necessary to move the school and the brigade. Costs for moving the brigade alone were estimated at $156 million.

The new report from the accountability office mentioned only the movement of the school and said its costs had risen 32 percent, from $247 million to $326 million.

Philip Grone, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, told the subcommittee that inflation had already caused an increase of $2 billion in construction costs around the country.

Grone also said the Pentagon had added $4 billion in "enhancements” for Army-related moves, including new training ranges and quality-of-life improvements for service members and their families.

He said the Pentagon also disagrees with the accountability office over how much will ultimately be saved.

The dispute centers on how personnel costs are counted. The Pentagon cites personnel costs savings when a base is closed or realigned, even if the personnel are moving to another military base.

Brian Lepore, with the accountability office, said the Pentagon is still paying the salaries and benefits of the moving personnel and couldn't count that as savings.

Lepore also said that the financial model used by the Pentagon to compute the costs of base closing rounds didn't account for inflation. Because of that, he said, the model "doesn't produce budget-quality numbers.”

The new report from the accountability office isn't the first to cite cost overruns from the 2005 round.

Earlier this year, the accountability office reported that the reorganization of the Air National Guard would ultimately cost the Pentagon about $53 million a year, rather than saving $26 million a year as was estimated in 2005. Several moves in Oklahoma were part of that recommendation.