Fill SPARES ‘Millions of dollars wasted’

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32849, 24 February 1972, Page 13

Fill SPARES ‘Millions of dollars wasted’

(N.Z. Press Association —CopyrtphU

NEW YORK, February 22.

A report accusing the United States Air Force of wasting millions of dollars in the pbrchase of spare parts for the Fill and other new aircraft has been issued by die General Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress.

Drawing primarily on an inquiry into purchases for the Fill, the report, made public by Mr Leslie Aspin, a Wisconsin Democrat in the House of Representatives, says:

It cost the Air Force SUSS6m in mark-up to buy Fill parts through the prime contractor, the General

Dynamics Corporation, instead of from subcontractors making the parts; a significant portion of this amount could have been saved by direct purchase. A total of SUSU6m worth of spare parts were bought before they might be needed, of which SUS9.6m worth have already been declared excess.

Many spare parts common to more than one Fill model were bought a second time, even though flight experience with the initial model indicated little or no use for many of them.

The G.A.O. indicates that its indictment is directed at Air Force policy as applied to all its new aircraft; it singles out the Fill to illustrate how the policy works. The Air Force is quoted as concuring in several G.A.O.

recommendations for overhauling its policy and minimising future waste in purchase of spares. The report says nothing about what effect the inflation of recent years might have had on the cost of spare parts, or about what savings, if any, might have been accomplished by premature purchase of spares in view of later price rises because of inflation.