Defense Supply Agency Could Reduce War Reserve Requirements for Medical Items

The Defense Supply Agency is responsible for insuring that medical supplies and equipment will be available to the military services in the event of war. This preparedness entails determining wartime needs and making arrangements for their supply by establishing stock reserves and making emergency production agreements with private firms.

The Agency had not given adequate emphasis to managing wartime needs for medical supplies and equipment. A management plan, sufficient resources to adequately canvass industry, and adequate technical assistance had not been provided to carry out the program. As a result: medical items readily available from commercial sources were not identified; planning agreements for most medical items classified as requiring emergency production by private firms had either not been implemented or provided insufficient quantities to meet wartime needs; and reserve stocks for medical items requiring emergency production agreements were overstated. The Agency's method of determining needs resulted in an extraordinary allowance for possible problems with the supply system.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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