Army Inventory: Unfilled War Reserve Requirements Could Be Met With Items From Other Inventory - Government Accountability Office (GAO) report

Army Inventory: Unfilled War Reserve Requirements Could Be Met With Items From Other Inventory - GAO Report

Date:	Aug. 25, 1994
Report No.:	NSIAD-94-207
Pages:	18
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Subjects: Army procurement Army supplies Combat readiness Ground warfare Inventory control systems Military appropriations Military cost control Military inventories Procurement policy Property and supply management Summary: After the Defense Department (DOD) Comptroller told the Army that it could use inventory not needed for peacetime missions to satisfy unfilled war reserve requirements, the Army estimated that it could reduce its unfilled war reserve requirements by nearly $187 million at its five inventory control points. GAO found that this estimate was understated and that the Army could actually meet $497 million of its unfilled war reserve requirements by using such inventory. Although GAO tried to reconcile the difference between the Army's and GAO's estimates, computer programming errors prevented Army officials from reconstructing the methodology used to arrive at their estimate. Army officials agreed that GAO's approach was correct. DOD officials said that before the Army could transfer this inventory to the war reserve category, DOD would have to change its policy to allow the Army to exceed the $2.9 billion ceiling on protected war reserve inventory.