Israel’s State Comptroller, Matanyahu Engelman, warned in an annual report that about 60% of the IDF’s equipment purchases fail quality control tests, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The State Comptroller is responsible for external oversight of the work of government ministries, local government, and various public agencies in the country, and monitors the management of the financial affairs of blocs and parties.
This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the Army does not provide comprehensive data on failures in quality control tests to the Department of Defense, which manages procurement, the report noted.
Quality tests are concerned with ensuring that certain standards are available in procurement to verify the possibility of achieving its purpose.
Loss of soldiers
Engelman said these statistics were particularly alarming in the midst of the extended Gaza war, when equipment failures can lead to the constant loss of soldiers, the newspaper reported.
According to the report, from 2020 to 2022, the Israeli Army Testing and Quality Control Unit of the Logistics Command conducted 2,490 initial tests, and suppliers failed 868 times, or 35% of the total tests taking into account all products individually.
Furthermore, the report said the unit conducted 20,740 continuous tests, with suppliers failing 3,027 times or 15% of the tests.
Failed tests
During the two-year period referred to, 80.4% of suppliers encountered occasional failures in initial tests, while 72.3% of suppliers encountered occasional failures in regular and ongoing tests, when focusing on suppliers as a whole rather than their individual products.
The report noted that many tests were not recorded or tracked.
The Controller warned that this occurred despite suppliers occasionally experiencing repeated failures in the same tests, wasting resources and time, and delaying the opportunity to use equipment.
Often times parties set new testing dates that are completely unrealistic compared to the time needed to fix the defect, leading to failure in quality control testing.
Parts of the report were kept secret from the public, due to national security concerns.
