What We Did
Our objective was to determine whether the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (OUSD[AT&L]) established a working group and developed and implemented procedures to recover organizational clothing and individual equipment (OCIE) from civilians and contractor employees, as recommended in DoD Office of Inspector General Report No. D-2010-069, “Central Issue Facilities at Fort Benning and Related Activities,” June 21, 2010. We also determined whether Army personnel implemented controls to mitigate risks associated with OCIE recovery.
What We Found
OUSD(AT&L) officials did not establish a working group or develop and implement procedures to recover OCIE from civilians and contractor employees. Instead, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness officials discussed the prior report recommendations during existing working group meetings and agreed that the Army would serve as the lead agent and develop and implement corrective actions. However, neither the discussion nor the decision to delegate the responsibility to the Army was documented. In addition, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy officials did not review contracting policies for necessary changes. This occurred because Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy officials were waiting for the results from the working group before changing contracting policies. Army officials from Army G-4, Army Materiel Command, and the central issue facilities at Fort Benning and Camp Atterbury implemented some controls to mitigate risks associated with recovery of OCIE. Despite these efforts to improve controls, many challenges related to the recovery of OCIE from civilians and contractor employees still existed and resulted in increased costs to replace unreturned OCIE, as well as potential loss of funds from uncollected debt. For example, we identified approximately $20 million in unreturned OCIE issued to civilian and contractor employees who deployed from Fort Benning and Camp Atterbury between October 2006 and May 2012. Improved procedures to recover OCIE from civilians and contractor employees should reduce costs for replacing unreturned OCIE and decrease the potential loss of funds from uncollected debt.
What We Recommend
We recommend that the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, implement corrective actions to address the recommendations in Report No. D-2010-069 and develop a time-phased plan with measurable goals and metrics regarding the implementation of recommendations in that report.
Management Comments and Our Response
The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness responded on behalf of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. Management comments were responsive to the recommendations. Although not required to comment, the Director, Supply Directorate, Army G-4, provided informal comments and agreed with the response from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition,Technology, and Logistics. Please see the recommendations table on the back of this page.
This report is a result of Project No. D2012-D000LD-0067.000.