We don’t mind razzing the Navy when it comes to Breathalyzers for sailors, or its increasingly strange ship-naming practices, so it seems only fair to tip our cover when warranted. The Government Accountability Office notes in a Thursday report that the sea service’s excess inventory had dropped from nearly 25% in 2008 to within hailing distance of the 10% goal in 2010.
Bur you know the GAO. As Emily Litella used to say on Saturday Night Live: “It’s always something – if it’s not one thing, it’s another.” So while noting the Navy’s achievement in getting its “on-hand excess inventory” in line, it adds:
DOD may find that the two targets for reducing on-order and on-hand excess inventory that it established when developing the Plan in fiscal year 2010 are ineffective in guiding future inventory management improvement efforts. DOD set measurable targets for each of its goals based on the best data available according to DOD officials, but since that time more recent data revealed that the on-order excess inventory target was met 4 years early and prior to the Plan’s implementation efforts’ beginning. Additionally, the on-hand excess inventory target was surpassed because DOD revised the definition and calculation of on-hand excess inventory.
“…Since that time more recent data revealed that the on-order excess inventory target was met 4 years early and prior to the Plan’s implementation efforts’ beginning?”
Dang. Too bad we can’t fight wars like that.