The Pentagon’s Spare Parts Problem
As budget hawks continue their attack on spending cuts around the country, it might be useful to look at the Pentagon after a report released Thursday claimed that at least $7 billion in taxpayer funds is being wasted on purchases of spare parts that the military ends up not needing.
As budget hawks continue their attack on spending cuts around the country, it might be useful to look at the Pentagon after a report released Thursday claimed that at least $7 billion in taxpayer funds is being wasted on purchases of spare parts that the military ends up not needing.
The Pentagon’s 2010 budget of $663.8 billion is more than seven times the combined military budgets of the next 14 ranking nations. –JCL
Dig, Root, GrowReuters:
A Pentagon agency buys over $7 billion worth of spare parts every year the Defense Department ends up not needing, a practice one senator decried as an “unbelievable” waste of taxpayer money.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a new report released on Thursday that the Defense Logistics Agency had no use for parts worth $7.1 billion, more than half of the $13.7 billion in equipment stacked in Defense Department warehouses on average from 2006 to 2008.
“The waste of taxpayer dollars is unbelievable,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent and Senate Budget Committee member who requested the study.
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