DLA's Restructuring of the Industrial Plant Equipment General Reserve Will Improve Its Management, If Properly Implemented

GAO reported on the Defense Industrial Plant Equipment Center's (DIPEC) management of the Department of Defense general reserve of industrial plant equipment.

GAO found that, as of December 1983, equipment in the general reserve storage facilities consisted of 14,500 pieces with an acquisition cost of almost $385 million. GAO also found that: (1) the average age of this equipment is well over 25 years; (2) most of the equipment has been in storage and has not been used in 7 years or more; (3) much of the equipment is obsolete; and (4) very few pieces of equipment are of the state-of-the-art variety. GAO supports the DIPEC plan to restructure the general reserve to identify criteria for equipment retention and disposal. The plan also requires DIPEC to purge unneeded equipment from the general reserve and to eventually maintain needed equipment in a ready-for-issue condition.