Defense Logistics

Requirement Determinations for Aviation Spare Parts Need to Be Improved Gao ID: NSIAD-96-70 March 19, 1996

The Air Force and the Navy budgeted $132 million more than needed for aviation spare parts because of questionable policies governing the determination of requirements and the accountability for depot maintenance assets. The Air Force, in preparing its fiscal year 1996 budget for aviation parts, did not consider $72 million worth of on-hand assets. In computing its fiscal year 1997 requirements for aviation parts, the Navy counted $60 million in depot maintenance requirements twice. GAO found that the Air Force and the Navy had made other errors in computing their requirements because of poor management oversight and internal controls. The Air Force and the Navy used unsupported or incorrect maintenance replacement rates, demand rates, planned program requirements, repair costs, lead times, due-out quantities, and asset quantities on hand and on order. These inaccuracies totaled $35 million for the items in GAO's sample alone and resulted in some requirements' being overstated by $25 million and others' being understated by $10 million.

GAO found that: (1) the Air Force and Navy budgeted $132 million more than needed for aviation spare parts because they used questionable policies to determine their requirements and assign accountability for depot maintenance assets; (2) the Air Force did not include $72 million of its on-hand assets in preparing its fiscal year (FY) 1996 budget request; (3) the Navy twice counted $60 million in depot maintenance requirements when preparing its FY 1997 budget request; (4) Air Force and Navy computation errors were a result of unsupported and incorrect maintenance replacement rates, demand rates, planned program requirements, repair costs, lead times, due-out quantities, and asset quantities on hand and on order; and (5) errors found in the sample items reviewed totalled $35 million and resulted in some requirements being overstated by as much as $25 million and some being understated by $10 million.

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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