Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote, “A penny saved is a penny earned,” is a principle all should live by. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center has taken those words to heart, and as a result, the ERDC has recently been named by the Department of the Army’s Defense Logistics Agency for Disposition Services to the Army’s Million Dollar Board.
The Million Dollar Board is comprised of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and other federal agencies who reutilize more than $1 million in a single fiscal year and are honored with a signed certificate from Disposition Services.
During the last fiscal year, ERDC saved more than $1 million dollars by turning to DLA Disposition Services as a source of supply, reusing excess property and saving taxpayer dollars.
To be precise, ERDC’s activity and contribution to that number involved 13 requisitions which resulted in a cost avoidance of $1,859,024. That’s a lot of pennies!
In her announcement letter, DLA Director Tina M. Aldrich praised ERDC by saying, “Meeting and exceeding the challenges of today’s Warfighter while remaining fiscally focused certainly deserves recognition. I appreciate and applaud these efforts.”
The effort for saving was initiated as a request by ERDC Commander Col. Bryan Green to remove excess property from the Vicksburg site while accounting for the monetary adjustment. District Logistics Manager Audrey Johnson and Regional Property Book Officer Jeraldine Wells led the charge. Under their direction, the ERDC log team was able to achieve this special recognition.
Johnson added, “This achievement was accomplished through professional competence, enhanced by adept ability to interact harmoniously with ERDC’s astounding organizational leaders.”
According to their website, as part of the DLA, DLA Disposition Services is headquartered at Battle Creek, Michigan and disposes of excess property received from the military services – wherever the United States has a significant military presence. Inventory changes daily and includes thousands of items including air conditioners, vehicles, clothing, computers and much more. The property is first offered for reutilization within the Department of Defense, transferred to other federal agencies or donated to state and local governments and other qualified organizations. Reutilization means big savings.
In the past four years, more than $2.2 billion worth of federal property has been reused each year. Every dollar’s worth of property reutilized is a tax dollar saved.
ERDC’s Vicksburg site was one of only 30 recognized organizations reaching the $1 million benchmark for fiscal year 2016 and the only Corps of Engineers Logistics Activity by The Department of Defense Activity Address Code to achieve this goal.