Date of Award

11-1966

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Political Science

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Preface

The Department of Defense (DOD) program budget was developed to link defense planning to defense spending. The budget is designed to reflect total program costs. Military managers require such costs in order to make optimum allocation of resources. The program budget has been a useful tool in bringing uniformity to military plans but its effectiveness, the author contends, has been limited because it contains inaccurate cost data.

The author intends to prove that incorrect financial information is included in the budget because some resource expenditures cannot be accurately traced. The same resource is "common" to several different weapon systems. It is not possible to separate and to apportion these common assets, in proper proportion, to the programs which actually consume the resources. Current defense management and funding procedures, in the author's opinion, prevent correct cost allocations. Consequently, such expenditures are pro-rated and actual system costs are never compiled or reported.

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