Spare-part woes add up at HAFB

WASHINGTON — Inspectors say carelessness with spare parts at the Air Force's three huge repair-and-maintenance air logistics centers — including at Utah's Hill Air Force Base — has been costing the military millions of unnecessary dollars.

Problems include storing away expensive, usable parts without informing purchasers that they exist — so duplicative parts often are ordered. Also, some materials are not stored properly to prevent damage.

Hill had the second most serious problems among the three depots. Such things could become important if the Pentagon tries to shut down a depot in the upcoming 2005 round of base closures, and the three logistics centers must compete over which center is more valuable and effective.

The findings are included in two Air Force Audit Agency reports — dated Jan. 16 and Feb. 21 — obtained by the Deseret Morning News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

That agency decided to measure how each center handles spare and salvaged parts coming from regular maintenance of one type of aircraft each — the C-130 at Hill's Ogden Air Logistics Center, the B-52 at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma and the F-15 at Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia.

After inspectors rummaged through storage areas at the three bases, they wrote, "Material managers did not include in accountable records parts worth $10.8 million" for the systems chosen for review.

They said that, in turn, had led Air Force purchasers to have in the pipeline orders for $3.3 million worth of duplicative equipment. More waste could have happened with other types of aircraft and weapons systems, since only three were reviewed.

At Warner Robins, managers failed to record in appropriate computer systems 84 percent of all spare F-15 parts found, valued at a total of $7.4 million. At Hill, they failed to record 70 percent of the base's stored C-130 parts, valued at $1.7 million. At Tinker, they did not record 44 percent of the B-52 parts found, valued also at $1.7 million.

Lt. Col. Lisa M. Bogdanski, spokeswoman for Hill's Ogden Air Logistics Center, said it was already researching excess spare parts before the audits because of extra work and materiel that had been transferred to Hill after two other depot bases were closed in the last round of base closures.