The Department of Defense lacks management controls to
ensure excess property inventory is reutilized as much
as possible, the Government Accountability Office has said.
It said that of the $33 billion in excess commodity
disposals from fiscal 2002 through 2004, $4 billion of
that was for new, unused or property in excellent condition.
“Improved management of DoD’s excess property could save
taxpayers at least hundreds of millions of dollars
annually,” it said.
Defense units reused just $495 million – about 12 percent
– of the items, and the remaining $3.5 billion – 88
percent – included significant waste and inefficiency
“because new, unused, and excellent condition items
were transferred and donated outside of DOD, sold for
pennies on the dollar, or destroyed,” according to
GAO-05-729T.
It said DoD units continued to buy many of the same
items and identified at least $400 million of unneeded
fiscal 2002 and 2003 commodity purchases because
identical new, unused, and excellent condition items
were available for reutilization.
GAO said it identified hundreds of millions worth of
lost, damaged, or stolen excess property that contributed
to waste and inefficiency in the reutilization program.
It ordered and purchased the same new and unused excess
commodities DoD continued to buy and utilize, including
tents, boots, power supplies, circuit cards and medical
supplies – for $2,898, whereas DoD’s original acquisition
cost was $79,649.
It blamed “unreliable excess property inventory data,
inadequate oversight and physical inventory control,
and outdated, nonintegrated excess inventory and supply
management systems,” for leading to waste and
inefficiencies.
“Procurement of inventory in excess of requirements also
was a significant contributing factor,” said GAO.
