Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Obviously, commanding officers talked about some delays in getting spare parts as well as their inability to get some spare parts. They also told us that, in some cases, they have had to cannibalize other equipment in order to be able to carry out repairs and that some pieces of equipment were very old and difficult to operate. However, they did not mention any serious consequences on operations and we did not find any such mentions in the reports.
I should also mention that the team went to Kandahar and interviewed people there who told them that they were managing to muddle through, for example by manufacturing spare parts or by using parts that were not exactly those they would wish to use. As we mentioned in our report, that is not viable in the long run.
About the $7 million worth of equipment that they could not track, we believe that the problem is due to the fact that they are using a manual system over there. Parts and equipment are kept in containers, not in warehouses, for example. While carrying out their stock-taking, they could not find that $7 million worth of equipment but, on the other hand, they found $6.6 million worth of items that were not in inventory.