This paper deals with a special class of inverse problems in discrete structural plasticity involving the identification of elastic limits and hardening moduli on the basis of information on displacements. The governing equations lead naturally to a special and challenging optimization problem known as a Mathematical Program with Equilibrium Constraints (MPEC), a key feature of which is the orthogonality of two sign-constrained vectors or so-called "complementarity" condition. We investigate numerically the application of two simple algorithms, both based on the use of the general purpose nonlinear programming code CONOPT accessed via the GAMS modeling language, for solving the suitably reformulated problem. Application is illustrated by means of two numerical examples.