Defense Inventory: Management of Surplus Usable Aircraft Parts Can Be Improved.

As requested, we reviewed selected aspects of the Department of Defenses DOD disposal process. When the military services no longer need aircraft parts, they turn them over to the Defense Logistics Agency, which manages DODs disposal process. As one option within the disposal process, the Agency can either sell the parts intact to the public or destroy the parts and sell them as scrap. Also, if for some reason a military service later determines there is a new need for parts still in the disposal process, it can request their return. This report addresses whether 1 DOD destroyed usable aircraft parts during the disposal process that did not have military technology and flight safety implications and 2 the military services recalled aircraft parts from the disposal process to preclude unnecessary purchases or repairs. We will report separately on whether DOD properly destroyed aircraft parts with military technology and safety implications. In fiscal year 1996, DOD sold about 3.3 million usable aircraft parts to the public through the disposal process surplus sales program. These parts had an acquisition value of over 2.3 billion. Our review focused on a judgmentally selected sample of 271 surplus items at three disposal offices. These offices handle some of the largest volumes of surplus aircraft parts within the disposal process.