The Services Should Improve Their Processes for Determining Requirements for Supplies and Spare Parts

GAO evaluated the validity of the services' requirements determination processes to ascertain whether beneficial techniques used by one service could be applied by other services to best use resources.

GAO found little consistency and coordination among the services on the best way to determine requirements. Thus, techniques developed by one service which seem to have merit and offer potential for doing something a better way are not made available to the other services. Consequently, opportunities to refine and improve the requirements determination process are lost. With better supervision and training, the services could make better use of limited resources and thereby enhance equipment availability and avoid investments in stock levels beyond real needs. GAO selected a statistical sample of items in a buy position during a requirements determination at three locations in the three services and tested the validity of the data elements used in the requirements determination processes. GAO found that the computed requirements were often not based on accurate data. As a result, the requirements were overstated or understated by millions of dollars. GAO noted that the problems could be widespread and significant. The misstated requirements were due to inaccurate data in the automated requirements determination systems, incorrect adjustments to the data, and the failure to follow prescribed leadtime forecasting policies and procedures. GAO found a lack of consistency among the services as to leadtime, first article testing requirements, and forecasting techniques. The data in the services' automated requirements determination systems required extensive manual adjustments to update and correct before a buy decision could be made.

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.

Director: Henry W. Connor Team: General Accounting Office: Procurement, Logistics, and Readiness Division Phone: (202) 275-4141