Inventory = Headache

So this past week has been pretty busy. Before the guy I replaced left, like 3 days before, he showed me the extremely large inventory of equipment he was signed (responsible) for. It included a couple million dollars worth of IT equipment (rack servers, switches, UPS, etc...) that our organization would never use. All of which was just sitting in our storage unit collecting dust. He was somewhat of a hoarder and told me he had it to barter with other units. He acquired the equipment from a large brigade size element that was re-deploying back to the states. They just wanted to sign it over to someone quick so he took it... ALL!

For the past month I have been working to redistribute this equipment to other units that actually need it and figure out if everything I am responsible for is actually here. A few Saturdays ago, I had a sort of fire sale where a few units came buy to see what they could use and offloaded about 80%, which was great. Now that the equipment is down to a manageable size, I am finding that some of it is not accounted for, meaning we cannot find it. This is a serious issue as one of the most important things in the military is equipment accountability. Computers, monitors, radios and other items are tracked by serial numbers. If you don't have it, you need to prove you transferred it to someone else to relieve you of financial responsibility. If you cannot then you can be found liable and have to pay for it out of your own pocket.

Normally an individual cannot leave a unit and move on until they have cleared their property book and shown that they have not lost anything. Somehow my guy left without doing this. This is partly to blame do to the fact that when a soldier is on 365 day orders to be here, there is a drop dead date by which they have to be out of the country or there is a red flag that goes up to the Secretary of the Army, then generals get involved and someone gets a butt chewing. Because of this, he was able to escape without completing a 100% inventory. This however does not remove him from responsibility he is found liable though... it does follow you.

My current commander is leaving in a few months and needs to complete a 100% inventory to transfer the command to the incoming commander. Because of this I raised the issues of the missing items to him to make him aware and get the attention it deserves. I now have the visibility and attention I need to reconcile the property. We are such a big organization that the equipment is out there in Afghanistan somewhere, we just need folks to raise their hand to say the have it. I have found a little bit each day by doing some serious investigative work. I have been staring at my spreadsheet just thinking of things I can do to get some kind of lead on where to look. We are missing some computers, so I called our Computer Help Desk to see if they had any record of them as we have been handing machines to them for Windows 7 upgrades. They responded with dates and names of personnel that dropped them off and picked them up. This allowed me to find all but 2 so far and I at least now know who to go to. I have also found notes from his previous inventories showing that some of the equipment was not really accounted either which is not good, for those previously responsible as I see it.

All in all, if some equipment is not found an officer will be appointed to investigate the situation and ultimately determine if there is a financial liabilityy and who it should go to. I am working to make sure it is not myself at this point and find as much as possible so it does not come down to this. Our supply guys is also running down leads as well.

That's all for now, will keep you posted.

TTFN,
Travis