Navy Defends $5.5 Million Spent on 3 Admirals’ Homes

A Senate committee is criticizing the Navy for diverting $5.5 million from its operational budget to refurbish the residences of three four-star admirals. The Navy defended the spending Thursday but suggested the diversion would not happen again.

As a result of the dispute, the Senate voted to require the Pentagon to notify Congress in the future if it spends more than $25,000 on fixing up the quarters of an admiral or general.

The Senate Appropriations Committee said the Navy’s decision to spend the money from its “operations and maintenance” account instead of from housing funds appeared to be “an attempt to circumvent congressional controls” on spending on the quarters of admirals and generals.

It asked congressional auditors at the General Accounting Office to look into the matter.

The Navy took money for repairs from the operation and maintenance budget because the houses are used for official functions, such as receptions, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Lydia Robertson.

“In any of these houses, only a floor or two is actually used for the family,” she said.

One of the three residences, that of the chief of naval operations at the Washington Navy Yard, is not being used as a residence by Adm. Jay Johnson.

The other two residences cited in the report were those of the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and the Pacific Fleet commander at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The criticism was included in an Appropriations Committee report that accompanied an $8.3-billion measure financing military construction in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

The measure was approved, 97 to 2, on June 16. The House has yet to act on its version of the bill.

Planned work includes new plumbing, an elevator for handicapped access, removal of lead paint and other repairs or upgrades that the government routinely makes to other public buildings, the Navy spokeswoman said.

The work is complicated and is often made more expensive by the age and historic value of the homes, Robertson said.

Nonetheless, when an internal audit early this year turned up the expenditures, Navy officials had second thoughts.

“The Navy came forward and said, ‘This is what happened. We don’t think it’s right and we’re going to change it,’ ” Robertson said.

Instead, the Navy is using ordinary housing budgets to pay for the ongoing work, she said.

The committee report said the use of “operation and maintenance” funds to renovate family housing was “totally inappropriate, irrespective of the rank of the individual who occupies these quarters.”

“Furthermore, the Navy has systematically failed to notify the Congress that these renovations and other family housing improvements were planned and ongoing,” the report said.

It is the second time this month the Pentagon has come under fire from senators for heavy spending on the military’s top commanders at a time when money for the armed services is tight.

During debate on military spending earlier this month, some senators complained that the Pentagon was leasing, for about $50 million a year, six new business jets for the use of its top admirals and generals.