Military Equipment -MIA?

B/W reports that the Inspector General for the Defense Dept.  has found a lack of internal control and insufficient equipment to do the job the military was asked to do. A staple of the long running tv show MASH was Radar on the phone trying to swap this for that and obtain some needed equipment.  Apparently nothing has changed.   I am not trying to drag us into a political discussion about the war as such in Iraq.  My points are this.

Auditing is continuing to take on whole new dimensions way beyond, is the balance sheet right?  Auditing often is now activity based as we discuss in managerial accounting.  Auditing is seeking to assure that best practices are followed, here the example is Supply Chain of Equipment.  And frankly we should all hold both Republicans and Democrats liable for the this pathetic report. How long has the army been in business and we still can't get guns and ammo to the front lines?  I rather imagine the officer clubs here in the USA don't have any shortages at lunch or during happy hour so to speak!
While control of the Oval Office changes, the rest of us would hope that some governance standard exists, you can see in my managerial course that I cite some Dept of Defense sites about TQM and budgeting objectives. 

An old adage has it that when it is everybody's money it is nobody's money. Another criticism of military is way too much obsession with exotic expensive hardware like stealth fighters. I have seen numerous 'e mails' from soldiers about poor performing rifles and pistols, the latest being that WW II weapons are being re issued. 

And so now we have a purchasing scandal at DISD and a Supply Chain Scandal at DOD. 

There is no shortage of jobs for auditors of all kinds and types.

DLE

Comments

[Michelle W.]

FYI. I've heard through the grape-vine that the U.S. soldiers in Iraq are given, for instance, the luxury of 20+ flavors of icecream at the icecream shop, posh bowling vacinities, etc. Why do the soldiers really need 20+ flavors of icecream? Wouldn't the Iraq budget be better utilized if only 3-4 flavors were offered and the excess monies be placed towards something more beneficial (this is subjective)? Absolutely there needs to be more stringent internal cost control.

[Dennis Elam]

I don't doubt there is an ice cream bar threre somewhere but from the e mails I have read from folks I know passed on from soldiers there, ain't may Baskin Robbins, if you can scrounge an A/C you are lucky. I just watched a piece on tv that concrete is being imported from kuwait when Iraq needs the business and the trailers being used are bulit in jordan and kuwait, not iraq. No doubt a lot of this is simply not wanting to deal with the terror prospect in Iraq but shows how tough it is to get anything done for folks that need it.