Congress has held hearings over the past 30 years seeking ways to fix the Defense Department’s poor procurement system.
A June 24th hearing offered interesting ideas.
No headlines afterward about stopping F-35 costs from skyrocketing, keeping new production of nuclear aircraft carriers on schedule or halting the failure of billion-dollar computer programs — in fact, there was hardly any press coverage at all.
Two worthwhile ideas that came from the four experienced procurement specialists who appeared before the House Armed Services Committee provided no silver bullets, but they made sense.
- Give the main contracting officer for major weapons projects absolute cradle-to-grave authority and responsibility and accountability.
- Interservice rivalry and even intraservice competition have far from ended, and they harm the procurement system.
Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/procurement-troubles-still-dog-defense-department/2014/06/30/11bae0a4-fe11-11e3-b1f4-8e77c632c07b_story.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
