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View Full Version : Afghanistan: Wasted Billions Put Lives At Risk


Richard
08-23-2009, 10:14
From 23 Aug 2009 The Sunday Times.

And so it goes...;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Afghanistan: Wasted Billions Put Lives At Risk

<snip>

...an unpublished official report, suppressed by the government, has found the Ministry of Defence (MoD) so incompetent at procuring equipment that billions of pounds are being wasted, the wrong systems are being ordered and soldiers’ lives are being put at risk.

The report claims:

- On average new equipment arrives five years late and costs 40% more than first estimated.

- The MoD equipment programme is £35 billion over budget.

- The MoD’s incompetence is helping our enemies who “are unlikely to wait for our sclerotic acquisition systems to catch up”.

The management is so poor, the projects so expensive and many items so out of date by the time they arrive that one defence expert is reported as saying sarcastically: “The system is failing to produce the equipment we don’t need.”

(cont'd)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6806504.ece