Navy Inventory

Better Controls Needed Over Planned Program Requirements Gao ID: NSIAD-93-151 July 1, 1993

The Ships Parts Control Center manages the Navy's stock of ship and submarine parts. GAO found weaknesses in the center's internal controls over and monitoring of planned program requirements. Specifically, the center's files contained duplicate and unauthorized planned program requirements, as well as inappropriate requirements for which the center did not budget and did not use to support specific supply actions. In addition, the center's written guidance for validating these requirements was inadequate. Duplicative and unauthorized payments could result in the procurement of unneeded materials. Although the planned program requirement system has been used by the Navy for many years, adequate program management data were unavailable to determine how well it operated. Improved control over and monitoring of the system by the center could help ensure that the Navy's planned program requirements are valid and satisfied promptly and efficiently. The center has taken steps to identify system problems and has reduced the number of planned program requirements in its files. The center also plans to emphasize this subject in its next management control review cycle.

GAO found that: (1) internal control weaknesses in the Navy's Ships Parts Control Center's planned program requirements system include duplicate and unauthorized program requirement records, inappropriate records, and inadequate guidelines and validation procedures; (2) the Center lacked sufficient management and analytical data to ensure that it was adequately matching customer requisitions with program requirements or accounting for on-hand stocks reserved for planned program requirements; (3) improved control and monitoring of the Navy's planned program requirements could help ensure that valid requirements are satisfied in a timely and efficient manner; and (4) Center actions to identify system problems and reduce the number of planned program requirements in its inventory include establishing a review group and conducting vulnerability and risk assessments as part of its management control review cycle.

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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