NCS has a strategic plan for addressing the demand for veterans’ burials up to fiscal year 2000, but the plan does not tie its strategic and performance goals to external factors such as veterans’ mortality rates and preferences for burial options—that is, caskets, in-ground cremains, or columbaria niches. Beyond the year 2000, NCS officials said they will continue using the basic strategies contained in the current 5-year plan. Five-Year Plan Has Multiple Strategies

According to its 5-year strategic plan (1996-2000), one of NCS’ primary goals is to ensure that burial in a national or state veterans’ cemetery is an option for all eligible veterans and their family members. First, NCS plans to establish, when feasible, new national cemeteries. Fourth, NCS plans to encourage states to provide additional burial sites for veterans through participation in the State Cemetery Grants Program. According to NCS’ Chief of Planning, NCS will encourage states to locate cemeteries in areas where it does not plan to operate and maintain national cemeteries. Traditional Casket Cemetery Would Be Twice as Expensive as Cremains Cemeteries

As demand for burial benefits increases, cemeteries become filled, thus reducing the burial options available to veterans and their families. Costs Vary Slightly for Columbarium and In-Ground Cremains Interments

Over 30 years, it would cost about the same to plan, design, construct, operate, and maintain a columbarium and an in-ground cremains cemetery with 50,000 burial spaces: $23 and $21 million, respectively. Casket burials would be the most expensive per burial and would have the shortest service period. Columbarium Burial Offers Most Efficient Option for Extending the Service Period of Existing Cemeteries

As less burial space is available, columbarium burial offers the most efficient interment option for extending the service period of existing cemeteries. While historical data imply that the majority of veterans and eligible dependents prefer a casket burial, NCS national data show that the demand for cremation at national cemeteries is increasing. Recommendation

To better serve the American veteran, we recommend that the Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs instruct the director of the National Cemetery System to extend its strategic plan to address veterans’ long-term burial demand during the peak years of 2005 to 2010; collect and use information on veterans’ burial preferences to better plan for future burial needs; and identify opportunities to construct columbaria in existing cemeteries, for the purpose of increasing burial capacity and extending the cemeteries’ service periods. Our Analysis of the Long-Term Costs of Alternative Modes of Interment: Methodology and Data

	Introduction

In this appendix we discuss the methodology, data sources, and principal assumptions that we used to characterize the relative long-term cost of each of three modes of interment: casket, in-ground cremains, and columbarium; project the outlays that would be required to construct and operate a cemetery that offers each of these modes of interment over a period of 30 years or more; and estimate the cost of these three types of interment on the basis of the development of a total of 1 acre of land composed of parcels of land not contiguous to each other in a cemetery nearing depletion of available burial sites. Site development. For phases 2 and 3, costs would be lower. Information on the Costs of Three Types of National Cemeteries

We provided information on a cemetery providing only casket interment, another providing only interment of cremated remains in columbarium niches, and a third providing interment of in-ground cremated remains.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) National Cemetery System (NCS), focusing on: (1) NCS' plans for addressing veterans' future burial demands; (2) the relative 30-year costs of three types of cemeteries: casket-only internment, cremated internment in columbarium niches, and in-ground internment of cremated remains; and (3) what NCS can do to extend the service period of existing national cemeteries.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) NCS projects that demand for veterans' burial benefits will increase; (2) NCS has adopted a 5-year strategic plan with the goal of ensuring that burial in a national or state veterans' cemetery is an available option for all veterans and their eligible family members; (3) strategies outlined in NCS' plan include: (a) establishing five new national cemeteries; (b) developing available space for cremated remains; (c) acquiring contiguous land at existing cemeteries; and (d) encouraging states to provide additional burial sites through participation in the State Cemetery Grants Program; (4) the strategic plan does not tie its goals to external factors, such as the mortality rate for veterans and veterans' relative preferences for burial options, that will affect the need for additional cemetery capacity; (5) it is unclear how NCS will address burial demand during the peak years when pressure on it will be greatest, since NCS has not developed a strategic plan for beyond 2000; (6) according to NCS' Chief of Planning, beyond 2000, NCS will continue using the basic strategies outlined in its current 5-year plan; (7) NCS plans to encourage states to establish veterans' cemeteries in areas where it does not plan to operate national cemeteries; (8) fewer than half of the states have established veterans' cemeteries; (9) states also have shown limited interest in a legislative proposal to increase state participation by increasing the share of federal funding; (10) GAO estimated the present value of the costs of three types of cemeteries, each with 50,000 burial sites, over a 30-year period; (11) planning, designing, constructing, and operating a cemetery of casket grave sites and no other burial options would be the most expensive interment option available; (12) the costs for a cemetery that offered only a columbarium and one that offered only in-ground cremains sites would be about the same; (13) while the cost of a casket-only cemetery would be over $50 million, the cost of a cremains-only cemetery would be about $21 million; (14) while the majority of veterans and eligible family members prefer a casket burial, cremation is an acceptable interment option for many, and the demand for cremation continues to increase; (15) as annual internments increase, cemeteries will reach their burial capacity, increasing the importance of making the most efficient use of available cemetery space; and (16) GAO's analysis of three interment options showed that columbaria offer the most efficient interment option because they would involve the lowest average burial cost and would significantly extend a cemetery's service period.