Improvement of defence inventory management explored by PAC
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) holds an evidence session on Improving defence inventory management at 4pm on Monday 13 November.
Meeting details
Based on a National Audit Office report on the topic, the Committee will question senior Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials on the management of the more than 740 million individual items of supplies and spare equipment it holds for immediate and potential use, described as ‘inventory’. This is valued at £10.8 billion.
The Committee found in February 2013 that the MoD faced serious problems in inventory management. These included the MoD not consistently disposing of stock no longer needed or seeing regular use, and wasting significant amounts of public money buying more inventory than it used.
The National Audit Office (NAO) has identified the need for improvement in this area as long ago as 1991, with MoD inventory management historically suffering from fragmented accountability and processes and ageing IT systems.