Summary: GAO reviewed the availability of selected stocks in Europe to meet the requirements of other commands within the Army.
GAO noted that: (1) repair parts and electronic components which exceeded requirements in Europe were not redistributed to meet urgent needs in other areas because of weaknesses in the Army's inventory reporting procedures and practices; (2) GAO's limited review identified combat vehicle repair parts and electronic components, valued at $3.2 million, that could have been used to satisfy urgent requirements in the United States and in the Pacific area; (3) the availability of these items, however, had not been reported to the appropriate national inventory control points in the United States, and, in the absence of such information, procurements and repair programs were initiated to meet known requirements; (4) after these items were called to the attention of management officials, assets valued at about $2.1 million were transferred to other commands, programs for repairs costing about $100,000 were cancelled, and procurements valued at about $180,000 were deferred; (5) the remaining assets, valued at about $1.1 million, were scheduled for redistribution subsequent to the completion of GAO's review; (6) GAO found that the Army Tank-Automotive Center did not consider the stocks in Europe available for redistribution because: (a) contrary to Army regulations, the various commands in Europe had not reported certain excess stocks to the Center; (b) those commands had not included the inventory of the Seventh Army in computations to determine the inventory quantities and excesses to be reported to the Center; and (c) the Center had not required overseas commands to submit depot asset reports for high-dollar-value items and secondary end-items during fiscal year 1965; and (7) the Army Electronics Command could not consider certain excess radio components in Europe available for redistribution to satisfy urgent requirements for these items in the continental United States because the various commands in Europe had not reviewed and evaluated their requirements for these components and therefore did not report the excess stocks to the Electronics Command.
