
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 6, 1990                   TAG: 9006060456
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

LAWMAKERS CONCERNED ABOUT PENTAGON SURPLUS

The Pentagon has not spent $50 billion in money appropriated to it, and congressional investigators fear it could be used at will by the department for major programs such as the B-2 bomber and attack submarine.

"The existence of these accounts hampers the Congress' ability to control obligations," staff investigators for a House subcommittee said in a draft version of testimony to be delivered today.

The Agency for International Development also has more than $11 billion in unspent money and the Energy Department has about $325 million, the investigators said.

But the Pentagon has the largest reserve of unspent cash in two accounts - one known as the "M" account, the other called a merged surplus authority account.

Money appropriated by Congress must be obligated or spent during a specific time period. If not, the funds lapse and the money is returned to the general fund of the U.S. Treasury.

The "M" account includes unspent money that is maintained by an agency or department and is used to pay previous obligations. The merged surplus authority account is a Treasury Department account maintained by the appropriate agency and used for similar purposes.

Congress created the accounts in 1956 to avoid appropriating additional money every year to pay for prior obligations.

-Associated Press

by CNB