This report is part of AOAV’s investigation into the US DoD spend on small arms, guns and ammunition from Sept 11, 2001 to Sept 10, 2015. Our research found many discrepancies between the contracts published on the DoD’s website and those found on the Federal Procurement Database System- research that can be read here. For information on what a small arm is, please see here. To understand more about US DoD contracts visit here. The investigation also included an examination of US expenditure for small arms for Iraq, which can be read here, and Afghanistan, see here.
2007 GAO report
In 2007, the Government Accountability Office released a report evaluating the extent to which the DoD could ensure that US-funded equipment had reached the intended Iraqi security forces. The subsequent report determined that sporadic reporting of weapon serial numbers, failure to collect receipts of weapon storage and distribution, and confusion over which accountability rules applied to weapons issued under the train-and-equip program meant that by that point, over 190,000 weapons had failed to be accounted for. 110,000 of these were AK-47s, and 80,000 were pistols. Reports of loss and theft of weapons from Iraqi security forces emphasised the danger in not only failing to consistently report the value of arms provisions to Iraq, but subsequently failing to keep track of them. The report showed a clear need for stringent accountability standards.
For the data on 14 years of DoD contracts for small arms, ammunition and attachments, please go here.
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