Coast Guard Cutters

Actions Needed Now to Ensure Better Management of Parts and Supplies Gao ID: RCED-95-62 January 24, 1995

The Coast Guard does not have the organizational structure or computer systems necessary to effectively manage its inventory for supporting its fleet of 240 cutters. As a result, the Coast Guard does not know the value, type, quantity, and condition of many of the spare and repair parts in the inventory. Without such information, the Coast Guard cannot determine whether cutters have a shortage or an excess of parts or whether the parts are readily available when needed.

GAO found that: (1) the Coast Guard does not have the organizational structure or computer systems necessary to effectively manage its inventory for supporting cutters; (2) the Coast Guard does not know the value, type, quantity, and condition of many of the spare and repair parts in its inventory and cannot determine whether cutters have a shortage or an excess of parts, or whether the parts are readily available; (3) Coast Guard officials believe that the lack of inventory management information has not seriously affected the Coast Guard's ability to carry out its missions, although they acknowledge that it has resulted in costly purchases and excess inventory; (4) the Coast Guard plans to take actions to improve its inventory control problems by fiscal year 2002; and (5) some of the Coast Guard's initiatives are already behind schedule, delaying both its short-term actions and its long-term inventory management efforts.

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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