Federal Manager's Daily Report

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An inspector general audit has said that DoD is missing opportunities to avoid purchasing new equipment by making greater use of the Defense Logistics Agency’s Disposition Services program, which receives and processes excess property for reuse or disposal.

Under the program, DoD and the military services may reuse serviceable or like-new excess property at little to no cost to the receiving activity. While the inventory changes constantly, common items include air conditioners, vehicles, clothing, computers, and medical equipment. Policy at both the departmental and military service levels “promote the maximum reuse of excess property to satisfy requirements before purchasing new property.”

The IG found that was done with more than 166,000 items in 2020 with a cost avoidance of $18.1 million but that another $5.2 million could have been saved by doing the same with nearly 133,000 more that were available through the program. It gave as examples lighting fixtures the Navy could have used, heating elements the Air Force could have used and suspension torsion bars the Army could have used—all of which were purchased instead.

In some cases those items ended up being donated to state governments or destroyed, it added.

It said that the military services did not do enough to promote awareness of the program nor address ordering personnel concerns about condition code accuracy and serviceability of the items available. Also, some military service systems were not interoperable with the DLA system, which “required ordering personnel to check and place orders for DLA Disposition Services property manually, which discouraged the reuse of excess property.”

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