Pentagon Markdown

Psst—anybody wanna buy a destroyer?

When it comes to buying, the Pentagon can be an easy mark, as demonstrated by the payment of $435 for an ordinary claw hammer that Navy auditors discovered last year. But it was revealed last week that the fleecing of defense is not limited to the buy side: the opportunity to make dubious deals also extends to the sale of military "surplus."

Since 1974, Air Force computers have automatically put many spare parts, ranging from bolts to airplane doors, on a disposal list if no request for the item has been received for twelve months. After checking just "a few" warehouses earlier this year, Air Force inspectors discovered that about $1.5 million worth of spare parts scheduled for disposal as surplus were still needed items that the Air Force was purchasing new at full price.

Thomas Cooper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, reported these findings to members of a House Armed Services subcommittee, which scheduled hearings on the disposal of military surplus for later this month. Meanwhile, congressional investigators vied with Pentagon inspectors to see who could uncover the most tooth-gnashing tales of wasteful disposal. Among them: > The Navy sold eleven Gearing-class destroyers to foreign countries (Taiwan, Greece, Mexico, South Korea, Turkey and Pakistan) in 1981 and '82 for a total of $5.2 million. But, says the General Accounting Office, the ships should have been valued at $36.4 million. They were mistakenly sold at "scrap value," says the GAO, instead of for the "fair value" price.

> While touring an Army depot in Corpus Christi, Texas, investigators found 63 cartons from the Kingsville Naval Air Station labeled 200 LBS. OF ELECTRONIC SCRAP. Inside the cartons were 300 brand-new electronic circuit boards still in the manufacturer's packaging. As scrap each circuit assembly would bring a few dollars, but investigators found that the Navy is buying them new for $125.

> More than 60 periscopes used on several weapons were sold as surplus to a California firm for $6.31 apiece; the Pentagon purchased them new for $64. The periscopes were coded "F," meaning they were repairable, but actually they were new. They had never been unpacked from the manufacturer's boxes.

Last year the Pentagon sold $1.6 billion worth of surplus for $89 million, which comes to less than 6¢ on the dollar.

One Senior Defense Official estimates that as much as 20% of the military's discarded material consists of items that the Pentagon currently purchases at full price.

While investigators sought a clearer picture of the total waste in the disposal system, Lawrence Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense, last week announced that he had sent an order to military inventory managers: stop sending material to the Defense Property Disposal Service. -