National Guard

Using the Army's Supply System Will Reduce the Guard's Inventory Investment Gao ID: NSIAD-93-25 December 9, 1992

To support its units, the Army National Guard maintains inventories of repair parts and other supplies at 54 locations throughout the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Concerns have been raised that the National Guard's supply system may be duplicating supply functions already being performed by the Army. GAO found that the National Guard and the Army could both use the same wholesale supply system, thereby reducing Guard inventory levels without harming supply responsiveness. GAO also found that the National Guard's system for requisitioning inventory in peacetime is not the same one used during mobilization. During mobilization for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, some Guard units encountered requisitioning problems because units lacked training on and experience with the Army's Unit Level Logistics System, the automated requisitioning system they are expected to use when mobilized.

GAO found that: (1) 67 percent of the requisitions the National Guard submitted were passed to the Army's wholesale system or filled by local purchases because the Guard's supply system was not authorized to stock the items; (2) approximately $680,000 of the $22.1 million on-hand inventory at the five Guard locations reviewed was in excess of the Guard's needs; (3) the Army could reduce its inventory investment by at least $215 million at all Guard locations by using the wholesale system to supply Guard units; (4) the Army Reserve was heavily dependent on the active Army's supply system for the support of its units; (5) supporting installations filled about the same percentage of requisitions for the Army Reserve as the U.S. Property and Fiscal Officer (USPFO) did for the National Guard; and (6) over 60 percent of the requisitions were not for items needed to solve urgent problems with inoperable equipment.

Recommendations

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