Auditors reveal army’s storage houses are overflowing with equipment
Would you like to buy some extra army socks? (photo: Anna Frodesiak)
April 30th, 2015 11:35 am| by Lucie Rychla
The Danish Army spends impulsively and lacks a comprehensive framework when stocking up, concludes Rigsrevisionen (the Danish supreme audit institution) in a new report that analysed the army’s inventory management in 2014.
Last year, Forsvaret (Defence Command Denmark) purchased 16,000 white sports bras for about 1.6 million kroner and 40,000 pairs of white underwear in 2014, even though it had already stocked enough of these items for more than 25 years.
Reckless spending
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Currently, 69 percent of all the equipment stored at the Defence Ministry’s main storage house (FMI) has not been used in the past two years.
Yet, Forsvaret purchased new equipment that was already covered for five to ten years ahead.
Managerial failure
In 2013, the FMI spent 1.7 billion kroner, of which 531 million was used to buy new stock that the army either already had enough of or was not needed at all.
The auditors have strongly criticised Forsvaret for its reckless spending and consider these findings as a sign of “managerial failure”.
“The stocks are replenished to such a degree that it goes beyond reasonable limits. This should not happen,” Peder Larsen, the head of Rigsrevisionen, told Politiken.
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