In the vast world of military spending, there are instances where the allocation of funds might raise eyebrows. A user asked the forum, “What do you think the biggest waste of money is in the army?” Here are the top responses.
DEVELOPING AND PRODUCING GEAR
“The amount of time and money spent developing and producing gear that is twice the price and half the quality of pre-existing commercial, off-the-shelf items.”
BAG OF BOLTS FOR 15K
“Spoke with a contractor in Afghanistan who bought a bag of bolts for 15k with government money. Normal size bolts, like 50 of them.”
ON POST HOUSING
“On post housing. All that money, and it’s still bad.”
COMPUTER PERIPHERALS
“The amount of computer peripherals and cables I’ve seen units purchase and barely use is sickening, and all for it to be obsolete in a year or two.”
STATIC-LINE PARACHUTING
“Static-line parachuting. I don’t want to start the ‘Is airborne even relevant’ debate, but we have too many paid parachutist positions. The army needs to look into it. How many brigades do we need to be airborne?”
TRANSPORTATION COST
“I can tell you that transportation costs are ridiculous.
Being involved in the made-up border crisis with the former guy during the midterms opened my eyes.
Before shipping our equipment, I ask what’s the mission so I can allocate resources. His answer was, ‘No idea, just bring everything.’
So we private contract line haul (no rail available, so it’s all on trucks) everything in a battalion-sized task force across the country and end up using almost none.
Of course, air transportation of equipment is sometimes on the table, which is just ridiculously expensive. In my former life, we’d ship Blackhawks on c-5s occasionally, like setting truckloads of money on fire.”
FOOD WASTE
“Everything, but I hate food waste the most, especially knowing how much waste the army produces from DFAC (Development Financing Advisory Council), MRE (Meal, Ready-To-Eat), Hot Chows, etc.”
RECLASSING SOLDIERS
“Reclassing soldiers after failing two consecutive tests for a MOS (Military Occupational Specialty).”
THE PAMPHLETS AND PROPAGANDA
“The pamphlets and propaganda, we don’t need the warrior ethos posters in every building on the post. If you’ve made it that far, you probably get it.”
USE OR LOSE SYSTEM
“The use or lose system. Suppose anything is a waste; it’s the concept of wasting your money so you don’t get a lower budget next year. If we encourage saving and not wasting, our money can be spent on better things.”
BOX OF PEN
“Everything. A 16$ for a box of pens. 10$ goes to the contractor, 4$ to the employees and 2$ for the pens.”
PRINTING
“Printing. Everyone in a staff or command position has a tablet, and that way, they can get all the power points sent to them for their briefing.
We will save millions by not having to print as much; bonus if they are CAC (Common Access Card) enabled with two slots so people can sign documents on the tablets!”
MASSIVE FURNITURE
The most significant waste I’ve seen is ordering massive amounts of furniture and taking it to the dump five years later. Some desks don’t even get assembled, and they are trashing them. Chairs galore that would fit nicely in some space in the bins.”
CONTRACTING
“Contracting. The lowest bidder, sometimes the bidder, gets a lot of money for work. Not every contract is bad, but in my experience, most are.”
TRICARE
“Tricare. Having a private company running it is not saving money.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs. Daaku Studio.