DOD ordered $754 million in unnecessary parts last year

The Department of Defense hit troops hard because of budget cuts but managed to pull this off?

Senators: DOD ordered $754 million in unnecessary parts last year
Stars and Stripes
By Erik Slavin
Published: March 12, 2014

The Senate wants answers from Pentagon officials on why the Defense Department spent more than $754 million last fiscal year on parts it didn’t need.

The Pentagon reduced its “on-order excess inventory” from $1.3 billion in 2009 to $609 million in 2011, but has since regressed, according to a March 11 memo signed by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

“These facts are troubling reminders that the DOD still has a lot of work ahead in its efforts to avoid wasteful spending by better aligning inventory with demand,” the memo stated.

On-order excess parts are “already purchased but likely to be excess due to changes in requirements,” according to the 2013 General Accountability Office’s High Risk Report.

The same report notes that in September 2011, even as DOD was cutting the excess items it was ordering, the department still had $9.2 billion worth of excess inventory in stock.
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