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THE
SITUATION |
By
Leesha Furse
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A
full stocktake of ownership and accuracy of
Air Force asset allocated to supply customer
accounts is due to be finished at the end of
the month.
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Units
have differing standards of logistics governance
compliance, which CAF says impacts on units’
readiness to deploy and operate.
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THE
final number crunching for a 100 per cent stocktake of ownership
and accuracy of Air Force assets allocated to supply customer
accounts will occur in the next few weeks.
CAF Air Marshal Angus Houston believes that the state of the Service’s
supply support is a key factor in units’ readiness to deploy and
operate.
“I require everyone in the Air Force to understand their obligations
and to ensure our asset records are accurate,” AIRMSHL Houston
said.
“At the end of the day, this is not just an imperative from a
financial accounting perspective. If we are to be ready to fight
and win, we must properly manage and control the assets we need
to deploy.”
AIRMSHL Houston has told commanders while “significant improvements
in the standard of supply governance across Air Force has been
achieved in the past 12 months through the Air Force Logistics
Campaign, there remains a significant gap between the current
situation and a level of supply governance that I consider a minimum
acceptable standard”.
Logistics Support Agency - Air Force Director Group Captain Mark
Gower said a recent audit of many Air Force units has indicated
an uneven standard of compliance across Air Force units: “some
areas of excellence and others requiring remediation”.
“In many cases, lack of compliance has been due to lack of awareness
of the detailed procedural and policy requirements, which have
undergone some changes over the past few years. This, along with
increased operational tempo of recent times, has resulted in governance
functions being downgraded,” GPCAPT Gower said.
A full stocktake to ensure that all supply customer accounts correctly
record the owners and assets has been underway since late last
year at the direction of the Defence Secretary and CDF.
The job is due to be finished on March 30. DLOG-AF began the stocktake
before the Logistics Support Agency- Air Force was set up on December
10 last year.
They are validating ownership, structure and data accuracy for
all Air Force supply customer accounts, however all account holders
are also conducting their own stocktakes.
The agency has been assisting units to comply with stocktaking
requirements. The stocktake will help to address the National
Audit Office’s criticisms of the department’s financial records.
“Effective supply governance provides assurance that Air Force
is complying with a range of its statutory responsibilities; it
makes a significant contribution to the effective support of operational
capabilities; and it has a direct impact on the efficiency with
which Air Force delivers its outcomes,” he said.
GPCAPT Gower said the minimum acceptable standard for logistics
governance was full compliance.
