The Army wasted $53.6 million in taxpayer funds buying more trucks and transportation equipment than it needed for use in Iraq and Syria, according to a Department of Defense investigation.
The wasted funds came as a result of poor management of the heavy-lift contract program, known as HL7 to denote the seventh stage of the program, which purchases a variety of trucks, busses and vehicles for use in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
The Army “ordered an average of 39 percent more transportation assets than it needed” in three out of four HL7 contracts between 2011 and December 2016, the Office of the Inspector General said in its report.
So far, the Army has spent $207 million on the four contracts, The OIG did not analyze whether all the work of the fourth contractor was necessary “because the Army could not provide data for the remaining contractor.”
Because of the over-purchasing, “the Army wasted $53.6 million throughout the life of the HL7 contracts on services that it did not require,” the report said.
HL7 contracts include baggage trucks, 25-passenger buses, 45-passenger buses, freezer vans, mail flatbeds, heavy equipment trailers (HET), and flatbeds.
The OIG noticed in December 2016 that the HL7 contract could be at risk because the contractor representatives “did not perform monthly surveillance of each active contractor and each type of contracted vehicle, or use the approved checklist to document surveillance.”
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