Six defense contractors produced more than 5 million bullet-proof body armor inserts whose quality the Army cannot guarantee, at a cost of upwards of $2.5 billion.

An audit by the Department of Defense inspector general found the inserts—produced by ArmorWorks, Simula, Cercom, Composix, Armacel Armor and Ceradyne from 2004-2006—were not tested consistently for factors such as velocity, humidity, temperature or altitude. Additionally, the results of several tests were not properly documented.

“The Army lacks assurance that 5.1 million ballistic inserts acquired…provide appropriate protection,” the IG wrote.

The report is the most recent in a series of audits first requested by Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., following a New York Times story in 2006 that reported 80 percent of Marines who died in Iraq due to upper body wounds could have survived if they had more body armor.

“Despite armor upgrades, many soldiers remain unhappy with the quality of their body armor, and have continued to purchase equipment from private companies,” Slaughter wrote in a letter to the DoD inspector general. “Unfortunately, the Army recently barred service personnel from using non-DoD procured body armor. I am concerned that our soldiers in the field—who think they need better armor than provided to them by DoD—were not consulted before the Army banned privately bought armor.”

The congressionally requested audits found that preliminary testing, called First Article Testing (FAT), was not part of 13 of 28 Interceptor Body Armor (IBA) contracts. The contractors’ qualifications were then investigated further, with the most recent report investigating testing processes for seven of the 13 contracts. The first six were examined in a report released in January.

The Veterans Affairs medical centers are in hot water again. A Government Accountability Office report reveals systemic deficiencies in sanitation and sterilization procedures at medical centers across the country, jeopardizing the health and safety of millions of veterans who rely on the VA for health care.

Many medical centers have failed to develop training programs to teach staff how to correctly clean, disinfect and sterilize reusable medical equipment, like surgical equipment. As a result, staff may not be sterilizing reusable equipment correctly, creating a serious medical risk.

A year after the VA required medical centers to develop this training, three of the six centers checked by the GAO had still not developed the training.

Officials at one medical center said they had not developed the required sanitation training for items like surgical instruments because they did not understand that they were required to do so.

The effects of these safety inadequacies have been seen across the country. In 2010, a Missouri news station reported that about 1,800 veterans were potentially exposed to hepatitis and HIV at the St. Louis VA medical center when workers washed dental equipment by hand instead of sending it to a hospital to be sanitized and sterilized.

GAO also found weaknesses in VA’s oversight of purchasing requirements at the medical centers. The staff at one medical center ordered the wrong piece for a dialysis machine, which caused blood to pass into the machine incorrectly, and potentially exposed 83 patients to infectious diseases, like HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. GAO identified purchasing problems all six of the medical centers it visited.

 “Until these weaknesses are addressed, the safety of veterans receiving care at VA medical centers could potentially be at risk,” the GAO report said.