Report: IDF sets up eBay-style website to sell surplus equipment

The Israel Defense Forces has set up an eBay-style internal website on which units and bases can sell surplus equipment, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Wednesday.

Brigadier-General Maran Prozenfer, financial adviser to the chief of staff, told Bloomberg that the IDF is the only military to operate such a site.

	IDF soldiers.
	Photo by: Alon Ron

According to Prozenfer, equipment costs make up for 40 percent of the IDF's NIS 50 billion shekel ($12.9 billion) yearly budget. The military hopes that in the short-term the site will cut procurement costs and in the long-term will help the IDF save money by avoiding duplication and waste in discretionary budgets.

The site became operational last month on the army's closed internet system and about six million shekels worth of equipment have been put up for sale so far. Items for sale include office equipment, copper wiring, generators, water filtration systems and televisions. If an item goes unsold on the internal site, it then gets placed on a Ministry of Defense website open to the civilian market.

Prozenfer told Bloomberg that the site does not yet include weapons parts and ammunition but that there plan to introduce those in the future. Such items would not be available for sale on the civilian market.

The site is part of a wider IDF effort to streamline its budget. Prozenfer told Bloomberg that the army is offering NIS 3,000 to any soldier who comes up with an idea to cut costs.