Williams, Adley & Company – DC, LLP (Williams Adley), under contract with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (OIG), has issued an Independent Accountant’s Report on the U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) FY 2022 Drug Control Budget Formulation Compliance Report.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Circular, National Drug Control Program Agency Compliance Reviews, requires National Drug Control Program agencies to submit to the ONDCP Director by February 1 of each year a detailed accounting of all funds expended for National Drug Control Program activities during the previous fiscal year.
At least every three years, OIG is required to review the report and provide a conclusion about the reliability of each assertion made in the report.
USCG interdiction efforts typically account for more than half of all U.S. government seizures of cocaine each year. USCG FY 2022 enacted drug control obligations totalled $2,251.385 million, with the majority attributed to interdiction activities and the remainder, around $1 million, assigned to research and development. This represented 16.44% of USCG’s total FY 2022 budget.
Based on its review, nothing came to Williams Adley’s attention that caused it to believe that USCG’s FY 2022 Budget Formulation Compliance Report and related assertions are not presented in conformity with the criteria in the ONDCP Circular.
USCG’s FY 2023 and FY 2024 budget allocations for drug control represent a slight decrease being $2,162.326 and £2,174.970 respectively, although the bulk of the resources – for operations and support – will see slight increases.
According to its own estimates, USCG seizes 1,253 pounds of cocaine and 172 pounds of marijuana each day. USCG’s FY 2023 statement noted that it had removed narcotics with an approximate wholesale value of $7.2 billion in the previous fiscal year. Seizures in 2022 included nearly $20 million in cocaine following the interdiction in April of a vessel approximately 45 nautical miles north of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
