Publicly Released: June 20, 2023
Summary:
The purpose of this management advisory is to inform Headquarters, Department of the Army and Army Materiel Command officials responsible for the Army Prepositioned Stock program and Army‑wide equipment transfer decisions of shortages in Basic Issue Items and Components of End Items from Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment. Army officials informed us of these shortages during our audit of the Army’s management of Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment (D2022‑D000RJ‑0163.000). Specifically, 401st Army Field Support Battalion–Kuwait officials identified a shortage of [REDACTED] Basic Issue Items and Components of End Items, assigned to [REDACTED] Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment, [REDACTED]. The Army needs these items [REDACTED]. Officials from the 401st Army Field Support Battalion–Kuwait explained that some of the shortages could have resulted from containers shipped by other military units not arriving at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Army Sustainment Command officials also stated that the shortages could have resulted from contractors using incorrect technical manuals when conducting inventories and 401st Army Field Support Battalion–Kuwait officials not validating on‑hand inventory before migrating the Army Prepositioned Stock–5 inventory to the current system of record. However, 401st Army Field Support Battalion–Kuwait and Army Sustainment Command officials could not provide the audit team with documentation to support these explanations.
Officials from the 401st Army Field Support Battalion–Kuwait determined the shortage during a September 2022 inventory, which compared the Basic Issue Items and Components of End Items needed from the system of record against the items on hand at Camp Arifjan, rather than a reconciliation of items received in shipping and transfer documents when the equipment first arrived at Camp Arifjan. Despite knowing about the shortage for at least 4 months, Army officials have not officially investigated the cause of the shortage. On April 6, 2023, 401st Army Field Support Brigade officials stated that the September 2022 inventory, which listed Basic [REDACTED] Issue Items and Components It of End Items [REDACTED] [REDACTED] included [REDACTED] [REDACTED] items, such as [REDACTED] paper towels and a diesel engine, that are not Basic Issue Items or Components of End Items. The 401st Army Field Support Brigade is working with the Army Sustainment Command to revalidate the total shortage. However, until the 401st Army Field Support Brigade completes the revalidation of the total shortage, the exact values will remain unknown. As a result, this management advisory will use the shortage reported by the 401st Army Field Support Battalion–Kuwait as of January 19, 2023, [REDACTED] Basic Issue Items and Components of End Items from the Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment, [REDACTED].
The shortage of [REDACTED] Basic Issue Items and Components of End Items from Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment, [REDACTED] puts the Army at risk of not being ready to execute required missions. We will cover the readiness issues in more depth in the final report we issue after completing our ongoing audit of Army Prepositioned Stock–5 equipment. We conducted the work on this management advisory with integrity, objectivity, and independence, as required by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency’s Quality Standards for Federal Offices of Inspector General.
The recommendations in this advisory are unresolved because the Commanders of the Army Materiel Command, Army Sustainment Command, 401st Army Field Support Brigade, and 401st Army Field Support Battalion–Kuwait did not provide a response to the draft advisory and our request for written comments in a timely manner. DoD Instruction 7650.03 requires that recommendations be resolved promptly.