The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy has not been organized or prompt in addressing necessary fixes to deteriorating conditions ranging from seawalls to stop flooding to water damage and mildew on the campus, a new government watchdog report revealed.
The Government Accountability Office report, released Tuesday, took aim at the progress the service academy in Kings Point, New York – which trains young officers to become mariners for the shipping and trade industry and the military – has made in fixing and upgrading infrastructure. Earlier reports had pointed to the issues on campus, but the poor conditions were still present on recent visits by the watchdog agency.
“These facilities exhibit crumbling facades, leaking pipes and water damage. We observed many of these problems and others during our October 2023 site visit to the campus,” the report detailed, adding GAO personnel saw “examples of decayed and water damaged facilities” in several parts of the service academy. One photo in the report identified mildew on an outdoor pool bathroom facility.
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Andrew Von Ah, the director of the GAO’s Physical Infrastructure team, told Military.com in an interview Tuesday that it was troubling to see the same problems in newly renovated buildings on campus.
“You saw a lot of water intrusion,” Von Ah said. “And this is related to the…
