Army Squandering Millions on Unreturned Clothing, Equipment

[The Straight Story]

The Army lost $20 million over the past six years at just two bases from civilians and contractors not returning clothing and equipment, according to a new report.

The Defense Department Inspector General’s Office found the Pentagon has not followed up on a 2010 report calling for stricter oversight of organizational clothing and individual equipment. That report had tasked The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics with developing and implementing a plan to reduce unreturned materials, but it failed to do so, the new audit found.

The acquisition and logistics office was supposed to set up a working group to determine how to eliminate the problem, but instead passed the responsibility on to the Army Materiel Command, the report found. Army officials told the inspector general they were not aware they had been assigned the task.

The IG’s report focused on Fort Benning in Georgia and Camp Atterbury in Indiana from October 2006 to May 2012. Civilians and contractors deploying from these bases received, at a minimum, a duffel bag, body armor, a helmet and a chemical biological mask. Additionally, some received clothing, safety glasses and sleeping bags. Civilians got $5,300 in clothing and equipment on average before deployment, while contractors obtained $3,400 worth.

http://www.govexec.com/defense/2013/02/army-squandering-millions-unreturned-clothing-equipment/61533/?oref=river

[DreamGypsy]

1. Inventory Shrinkage

A couple of days ago I read a post about a Walmart employee who was facing charges of stealing Oreo cookies...yeah, that post, remember (it got ~250 replies). In composing my response to that thread I did a little investigation and stumbled upon a term I had not heard before "Inventory Shrinkage".

You might imagine that Inventory Shrinkage is something like quantum tunneling in black holes - you just sit around long enough and your inventory shrinks, and eventually disappears, due to quantum fluctuations occurring exactly at the "Walmart radius". Well, if you imagined that, you'd be wrong.

Inventory shrinkage is shoplifting, theft, pilferage, borrowing, forgetting that you put the 54" TV in your car until you got home and then forgetting to return it.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Shrinkage (Accounting):

Causes

An estimated 44% of shrinkage in 2008 was due to employee theft, totaling over $15.9 billion. Another 35% was due to shoplifting, totaling over $12.7 billion.[1] The prevention of this type of shrinkage is one reason for security guards, cameras and security tags. Other causes of shrinkage include:

Administrative errors such as shipping errors, warehouse discrepancies, and misplaced goods.
Cashier or price-check errors in the customer's favor.
Damage in transit or in the store.
Paperwork errors.
Perishable goods not sold within their shelf life.
Vendor fraud.

(NB: It is unclear from the Wikipedia article whether the data refers to U.S. shrinkage, or world wide shrinkage. Caveat emptor.)

So, what's this all got to do with the Army Squandering Millions on Unreturned Clothing, Equipment???

If you add up the two amounts reported by Wikipedia for 79% of the "inventory shrinkage" in 2008, that's $28.6 billion in one year.

If the military's "shrinkage" was just $20 million in 6 years, that's $3.33333 million per year, so the military is apparently doing a reasonably good job of controlling its losses compared to the retail industry. Maybe the article is just noise. Or maybe the article is the basis for a new proposed military inventory tracking system, costing $25.3B, that will reduce the loss due to unreturned clothing and equipment.

When aircraft carriers, F-35's, nuclear submarines, and predator drones go missing, then maybe we should start to worry. Until then, better to worry about your shrinking paycheck.

[The Straight Story]

2. When my son got back from Iraq

He had to make sure everything was returned or it came out of his pay. There was a problem with his one piece of armor in that he returned it before he left Iraq but after a week or so they got it sorted it.

They do a pretty good job which is why this report caught my eye in the first place.

[DreamGypsy]

3. Good that your son made it home safely...

...and I hope, as much as possible, physically and mentally unscathed.

Sad when we are more concerned about the material loss in war, than about the enormous human and spiritual loss.

Thanks for your post.