Audit: Navy Storing $Billions of Excess Parts

By Bryan Bender, Globe staff

WASHINGTON _ Government auditors today identified at least $7.5 billion worth of unneeded spare parts stored in Navy warehouses, the latest example of wasteful military spending that prompted calls for the incoming Obama administration to take bold action to rein in the bloated Defense Department.

Between 2003 and 2007, the Navy's supply of replacement parts for ships and aircraft far outripped its needs, according to the Government Accountability Office. In some cases it found stocks of equipment the service is unlikely to use up for decades to come -- such as 13,852 engine blades for its F/A-18 fighter jets, estimated to be worth $3.6 million.

In total, the Navy currently has nearly 2 million more aircraft parts than its own projections deem necessary, while it is storing a whopping 10 million ship parts designated as excess. The cost of storing the equipment alone is $18 million, GAO estimated.

"Based on Navy demand forecasts, inventory that exceeded current requirements was sufficient to satisfy several years, or even decades, of supply needs," according to the investigation, which was requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent.

Several factors have led to the unnecessary purchases, including inefficiency in the Navy's inventory management and a limited ability to accurately forecast equipment needs, according to the audit.

"As a result, the Navy had billions of dollars in excess inventory against current requirements each year," GAO concluded, including some pieces of equipment that are still on order but already slated for disposal because they won't be needed.

Sanders, who cosponsored legislation earlier this year to create a special oversight board to root out wartime waste, called the findings "unbelievable and outrageous" and urged the incoming Obama administration to take much-needed action next year to safeguard taxpayer funds.

"At a time when the nation has a $10.6 trillion debt, we simply cannot afford the continuing uncontrollable waste across the federal agencies,” Sanders, a member of the Budget Committee, said in a statement.

He added: "Unfortunately, this is not just the Navy, but something the entire military has to address. I hope the next administration will take the issue seriously."

The Pentagon, which concurred with the report's recommendations for improving management of the supply chain, pledged to take action. "The Department continues its focus on reducing potential excess," Jack Bell, the deputy under secretary of defense for logistics and materiel readiness, said in a written response to the report.

The findings come as the Commission on Wartime Contracting, established by Congress earlier this year to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse in Pentagon purchasing, prepares to hold its first public hearing in early February.

But Sanders, in a telephone interview from Vermont, said far more needs to be done, vowing to author new legislation to make it illegal for the military to spend appropriations on spare parts it cannot justify.

"It is not good enough to say 'do a better job.'" Sanders told the Globe. "We have been talking about this issue of unused and unneeded spare parts for many years. We need legislation to make sure the Pentagon is not wasting billions of dollars."