Forget Area 51 — Spending at the Pentagon is Out of This World

Is the government hiding flying saucers and extraterrestrials in Area 51, the top secret Air Force installation in Nevada? That age-old conspiracy theory instigated the tongue-in-cheek event to “storm Area 51” this Friday to “see them aliens.”

But, if a UFO was being held in one of the Pentagon’s warehouses, it may prove difficult to uncover.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has an inventory so massive that it has proven difficult to keep track of a fire truck! Honestly folks, how do you lose a fire truck?

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which manages DoD’s global supply chain is hoarding billions of dollars in spare, and excessive, parts in its storage centers. As a result, the agency is incurring millions of your tax dollars from unnecessary costs to store more than 768,000 items that most likely will never will be used.

The inventory is spread throughout more than 250 distribution centers. Many of these are in close proximity to one another or even on the same military installation. And some depots also use private storage when there are DoD-run distribution centers located nearby.

According to the non-partisan watchdog Government Accountability Office (GAO), DoD could save more than half-a-billion dollars by simply minimizing unnecessary overlap and duplication and more efficiently using its distribution centers.

So why not consolidate these facilities and save some of your hard-earned dollars? Great question. And one that the Pentagon has repeatedly asked. For years, DoD has requested the authority to address these costly inefficiencies.

However, even though Congress refuses to grant formal approval to DoD to streamline its storage and supply chain, the Pentagon could use existing authorities to close some excess storage installations, according to GAO…so I’d say they’re still at fault in this as well.

September Squeal Award: Congress & the Pentagon

Folks, it makes no sense to waste hundreds of millions of dollars keeping underused and unneeded warehouses open or hoarding billions of dollars of stuff that is just taking up space.

For these reasons, I am awarding my September Squeal Award to both Congress and the Pentagon.

It is also why I have introduced the Defense Storage and Supply Efficiency Improvement Act, which allows DoD to consolidate unneeded and underutilized warehouses and storage centers.

Forget Area 51; spending at the Pentagon is out of this world. Click here or on the image above to watch this month’s episode of Squeal TV.

Who knows what might be found if DoD raids its own storage closets—maybe that missing fire truck or even a UFO and some little green men?

DISCLAIMER: The Raid Area 51 event is intended to be satirical and no one should attempt to illegally access the facility or any other military installation. Doing so is unlawful and dangerous. 

Do you have an example of government waste or inefficiencies that I should take a look at? Send me an email by clicking here.

Thank you!