select... Topics Organization People Activities Issues

Vol 28 - No 07 - September 2002 Letter: Copy of an Extract published from The Guardian Newspaper Sent in for publishing in CONTROL By Bob Irwin ROME Project Target MoD !!! MoD hoarding billions in obsolete stock Richard Norton-Taylor Guardian Thursday June 20, 2002 The Ministry of Defence valued 1,175 brass nuts at a total of £83m, when they were actually worth £1.17. It also valued 159 special personal computers in its stockpiles at £192m, when their real worth was less than £2m. The embarrassing errors are revealed in a report published today by the national audit office, which discloses how the MoD is hoarding billions of pounds worth of equipment that is either obsolete or useless to the armed forces. The RAF is holding 1,775 aircraft refuelling tanks, enough to last for 440 years, the national audit office reveals. It also owns equipment worth more than £5bn, for which it sees no demand. Stock valued at £1bn is being held even though it is classified "inactive". A further £1bn-worth has a turn-around period of more than 60 years. The army possesses 4,000 radiation detection units, described by the audit office as a "throwback to the cold war". The Royal Navy, meanwhile, has 53 voice-encoding machines valued at £1m and described as "obsolescent". The ministry says it got rid of £2.8bn worth of unwanted equipment. However, the national audit office says the claims should be treated with caution, not least because of errors the ministry has made in valuing equipment. A study of the MoD's 1998 balance sheet showed that stock figures could have been either overstated or understated by more than 20%, leading to a margin of error of as much as £2.2bn, according to the audit office. The report also reveals that the ministry holds stocks valued at £12bn that will not be used for more than 10 years. The cost of storing these items is estimated at £870m. The report says the MoD's total assets base, including ammunition, land and buildings, is valued at more than £20bn. Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said the report revealed "extraordinary examples of over-zealous squirrelling away" by the MoD. "I know we've had a 100 years' war, but this is ridiculous," he said. "The MoD happily reported that they had achieved one of their targets, but the NAO now tells me that this can't be validated\." Sir John Bourn, the comptroller and auditor general, said: "Too much stock is still kept because information systems are poor, or 'just in case'\." The report is likely to be seized on by the Treasury, which has always been suspicious of the MoD's procurement bureaucracy © Guardian Page number: 9 Word count: 400 Related Topics:
	To read the articles you'll need Acrobat Reader. To download Acrobat Reader click the following button: To Save and Print the articles click the appropriate on-screen buttons or select Save or Print from the File menu at the top of the Acrobat window.