Inside Defense
Jan. 12, 2010 -- Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's acquisition executive, has tapped Jacques Gansler, a Clinton-administration DOD procurement chief, to spearhead a new task force examining ways to improve a fast-growing area of the military budget -- services contracting.
On Dec. 4, Carter named Gansler, who was DOD acquisition executive from 1997 to 2001, to lead a task force to examine all aspects of how the Pentagon purchases services, a task Congress directed in the fiscal year 2010 Defense Authorization Act.
In 2007, Gansler led a commission that delivered a report on Army expeditionary contracting that called for “urgent reform” of the workforce, organizations, training and policies undergirding forward contracting activities.
Since the mid-1990s, the Defense Department has increased its reliance on contractors to perform tasks previously performed by government employees -- many of which are closely linked to inherent government functions, including contracting support, intelligence analysis, program management, as well as engineering and technical support for program offices.
Congressional investigators in 2008 pegged annual DOD spending on services contracts at more than $300 billion annually.
“With awards to contractors large and growing, DOD will continue to be vulnerable to contracting fraud, waste, or misuse of taxpayer dollars and abuse,” the Government Accountability Office stated in a Jan. 23, 2009, report.
Last June, the House Armed Services Committee included in its mark of the Pentagon's FY-10 spending plan, a requirement for the Pentagon acquisition executive to commission a study of ways to improve services contracting -- a provision eventually enacted last fall.
Accordingly, Carter asked the DSB -- in a two-page, Dec. 4 memo -- to assess the “quality and completeness” of guidance relating to services procurement, “including implementation of statutory and regulator requirements.”
The task force will review “the extent to which best practices are being developed for setting requirements and developing statements of work,” and assess “the contracting approaches and contract types used for the procurement of services” and whether these best serve DOD interests.
The task force should also consider the “effectiveness of peer review within the Department of Defense of contracts for services and whether such reviews are being conducted at the appropriate dollar threshold,” Carter writes.
In addition, the task force will examine DOD management structure for services acquisition and whether statutorily required performance savings goals are being achieved.
The review will examine the effectiveness of the Acquisition Center of Excellence for Services, established in accordance with the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003, “and the feasibility of creating similar centers of excellence in the military departments.”
Lastly, the Pentagon advisory panel -- according to Carter's request -- will weigh in on the “quality and sufficiency of the acquisition workforce for the procurement and oversight of services.” -- Jason Sherman
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