Biggus wrote:
As to the "...lets just keep them in storage..." arguement. Well, a little known fact is that when he was chancellor that nice Mr Brown introduced a scheme where MOD (I think it was all government departments) have to pay to the treasury to store its own equipment - think of it as a tax on storage. No doubt this was a nice way for Mr Brown to claw some money back, and was designed to reduce "waste" in departments by storing stuff they no longer need. I believe the "tax" was a certain percentage of the value of the stored item - no doubt a supplier can help me out.
So what was the rate of tax (I seem to remember 6% was mentioned)
I think the %age you mention was about right, although things may (no doubt, will) have changed since I retired. The inception of the beancounters Rescource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) did cause the massive disposal of kit because of the "tax" imposed on storing the stuff. Engineering colleagues will recall the purges on chiefy's drawer in order to get rid of those useful bit 'n bobs that would come in handy because they were so scarce - it also came under the catch-all umbrella of "QA". SM Branches(as were) went into overdrive to dispose of stuff that didn't have show any transactions within the preceding six months and certain spares disposal companys became very rich spares disposal companys.
The folly of this indecent haste to comply with the beancounters rules meant (a) the engineers found that their spares were vanishing before they could be used causing an increase in robbing and (b) the ultimate obscenity of the RAF having to buy the spares back from the disposal companys at much more inflated prices than the company paid for them. I had personal experience of (b) as I had to drive down to Somerset to recover the very same kit that I had been directed to send there three weeks previous, and for which our aircraft were now 'D' state! MOD wasting money? - nothing new there.
