Incidents of military equipment going missing this year demonstrate a lack of strict management and structure in the Ministry of National Defense, the National Audit Office said in its Central Government Budget Audit Report.
A handgun and other components were reported missing from the navy’s inventory in March, followed by bullets and other weapons that were allegedly acquired by gangsters in the same month, said the report, which was released on July 27.
The management unit failed to check and take inventory during the process of maintaining, packing, transferring, storing and distributing ordnance, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Military News Agency
Such incidents have taken days to be reported to the top levels of the military, the report said, adding that regular inventory checks failed to identify the missing military equipment, showing that inventory management is “not rigorous.”
Regulations stipulate that when discrepancies between actual inventory and the accounting records are found, the cause of the discrepancy should be identified and the records should be adjusted accordingly, the report said.
Inventory should be replenished when items are lost or damaged, it added.
The ministry is responsible for compiling the details of military materiel, and conducting accounting checks monthly, the report said.
Last year, the ministry checked the naval weapons and logistics management information system records, it said.
After comparing its findings with the records of the Office of Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Logistics, huge discrepancies were found regarding the number and cost of materiel, it said.
An inventory inspection found about 560,000 more of some items — valued at NT$141.66 billion (US$4.47 billion) — than in the accounting records, while about 430,000 other items — valued at NT$87.9 billion — had been recorded, but could not be accounted for, the report said.
The reasons for the discrepancies were not looked into, and no one was held accountable, the report said.
Despite coordinating its units’ operations every month, the ministry failed to find the accounting mistakes, it said.
The ministry said it is planning to update the Office of Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Logistics’ record system to avoid manual errors.
It has asked the navy to conduct comprehensive checks on the accounting figures to ensure that the inventory and record match, it said.
The Office of Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Logistics categorizes military materiel and assigns a number to each piece of equipment, but the category and material numbers of some items did not match, the report said.
For example, ambulances were assigned a tactical vehicle number instead of an administrative vehicle number, it said.
The ministry said that it has told the units in charge of accounting to review and revise their categorizations by April next year.
An error warning function was added to the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Logistics’ system, the ministry added.
The National Defense University had made wasteful uniform procurements and its administrative efficiency was poor, the report said.
The uniform procurements were not in accordance with regulations and guidelines, leading to a huge amount of clothing left unused, the report said.
Spare clothing was not stored and managed according to regulations, it added.
The university and military academies failed to properly record clothing usage, which would affect the efficiency of clothing supply and management operations, the report said.
The armed forces, the Military Police Command and the university failed to properly manage clothing usage, ensure old clothing was returned and replenish lost and damaged clothing, it added.
The university would revise its clothing supply strategy and take inventory of its clothing, the ministry said.
Students at the military academies have been asked to keep records of their clothing usage on a designated system, it added.
The ministry said it would continue to improve its clothing management system.
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