Book Description

Inventory worth billions of dollars has been vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse because the Air Force either did not adhere to control procedures or did not establish effective procedures. Because of these control weaknesses, repair contractors have access to items and quantities of items not specified in their contracts, and the Defense Contract Management Agency does not have the quarterly reports on shipment status that it needs to independently verify that contractors have accounted for shipments of government-furnished material. In addition, contractor receipt posting and discrepancy reporting practices produce incomplete and inaccurate information, impairing the ability of the Air Force to monitor shipments. Even if contractor records on shipment receipts were accurate, the Air Force's system cannot reconcile material shipped to contractors with material received by contractors, so the Air Force cannot readily identify shipments with unconfirmed receipts. Consequently, the Air Force cannot readily account for these shipments, which include classified, sensitive, and pilferable items. Finally, the Air Force has not exercised the required extent of program oversight by collecting data on contractor shipment discrepancies and using it to assess practices for safeguarding shipped inventory; as a result, it cannot identify the extent and cause of contractor shipment discrepancies or take corrective action.