Military's bean counters awry

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Sometimes the military has more bombs and rockets than it thinks.

And sometimes it has fewer.

Official papers show that the military often counts its bullets, rockets, detonators, flares, hand grenades or "battle simulators" only to find the numbers differ from stock records.

The number problems are mostly put down to "accounting discrepancies", of which the Army alone has had 38 in the past 20 months.

But some items are lost or stolen.

Defence Minister Mark Burton said courts of inquiry were probing the accounting errors, which occurred mostly at Army bases in Auckland and Linton, with one in Christchurch.

So far, the courts have found problems with "insufficiently trained ammunition accountants" and "a lack of documented and understood accounting procedures".

The courts were yet to recommend ways to fix the problems, Mr Burton said.

The papers, which the Herald obtained under the Official Information Act, show that thieves stole a pistol from a Napier armoury in February, an Air Force vehicle from outside a Hamilton hotel in June, and six .22 rifles and nearly 2000 bullets from the Papakura Cadet Unit armoury four weeks ago.

The vehicle and three of the rifles were recovered.

The papers reveal that two weeks ago a Timor Leste civilian handed in a Steyr rifle barrel that slipped from a New Zealander's pack more than a year earlier.

But two other rifle barrels that fell from packs in Waiouru on July 23 last year and March 17 this year are still missing.

Officers dealt with the barrel losses by "reinforcing personal security procedures".

The papers show the Navy is best at counting its weapons, with no discrepancies in the past 20 months.

The Air Force had one accounting problem, in which an issue of 1000 rounds of 9mm bullets was found to be 400 bullets short. The error was traced to a faulty shipment from overseas.

But as well as losing weapons, the military also finds them - 94 items of munitions have been recovered since January last year, mostly old war items handed in by the public.