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The organization has 952 DND employees, 273 military personnel and an unknown number of contractors. It is responsible for maintaining and repairing thousands of pieces of equipment.

The lack of availability of actual worker numbers is problematic.

The DND says it is following up on the evaluation’s recommendations and will try to determine the number of contractors it has as well as establish management performance indicators by early next year.

But in its response to the auditors, DND officials dismissed concerns that parts are being purchased for equipment that could be obsolete. They countered that a majority of the purchases were legitimate. In some cases, large numbers of parts had to be bought to cover the life of specific equipment.

Defence union president John MacLennan said he wasn’t surprised by the warnings about private contractors. The Conservative government tried to save money by cutting full-time federal staff, he noted.

“What happened was that public servants were forced to leave and management brought in the contractors,” said MacLennan, president of the Union of National Defence Employees. “But it got out of control and you have the situation they find themselves in today.

“They cut vehicle mechanics, they cut maintenance people,” he said. “It was mismanagement, for sure.”

Since there are numerous contracts and subcontracts, it is difficult to figure out exactly how many private contractors are on the payroll, he added.