Over just a one-year period, the Army and Marine Corps may have wasted more than $100 million returning vehicles from Afghanistan they do not need, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.
USA Today reported:
The services could have saved the money by blowing up the trucks or turning them over to allies, the report says. Over a one-year period, the Army and Marines returned 1,000 vehicles to the United States that the service didn't need, at a cost of as much as $107,400 per vehicle.
The Pentagon has made some progress in reining in its costs, GAO notes, but not enough.
"However, due to ineffective internal controls, the Army and Marine Corps may be incurring unnecessary costs by returning equipment that potentially exceeds service needs or is not economical to return and repair," the report says.
Apparently, the Army and Marines may have shipped home the vehicles because they didn't realize that transportation costs were so high. But from October 2012 to October 2013, the Pentagon returned or destroyed 14,664 vehicles--an average of 1,128 vehicles per month. The Pentagon has not commented on the matter.
The Pentagon also spent $620 million on late fees for shipping containers it did not return on time.