DEFENSE INVENTORY: Approach for Deciding Whether to Retain or Dispose of Items Needs Improvement

Abstract

As of September 30, 1999, the Department of Defense reported 1 that it owned about $64 billion of secondary inventory 2 and that, of that amount, components have determined that about $9.4 billion is more economical to retain than to dispose of and possibly need to repurchase. We previously reported that $39.4 billion (about 60 percent) of the Department s $65.8 billion secondary inventory as of September 30, 1997, exceeded operating requirements and that the Department s cost of operations could be reduced by disposing of inventories if it was economical to do so. 3 Through disposal, the Department eliminates some storage costs and the government recoups a small fraction of an item s purchase price. However, if stock is disposed of before it is economical to do so, inadequate supplies of the item could reduce readiness and costly repurchases might be necessary.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA390486

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accounting
  • Acquisition
  • Air Force
  • Budgets
  • Cost Effectiveness
  • Department Of Defense
  • Economic Analysis
  • Economic Models
  • Electronic Mail
  • Governments
  • Inventory
  • Inventory Control
  • Logistics
  • Marine Corps
  • Procurement
  • United States
  • Weapon Systems

Readers

  • Environmental Engineering.
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.
  • Logistics and Supply Chain Management.