Cost-cutting | The Contracting Education Academy

November 1, 2016 By AMK

Kendall: The Pentagon’s spending less on weapons, so let me keep my job

A 30-year-low in cost growth is part of the defense acquisition undersecretary’s closing argument for why Congress shouldn’t eliminate his position.

atl-job-oct-2016 Some political appointees spend the final months of a presidential administration counting the minutes until the inauguration. Frank Kendall is not one of them.

Rather than slip back into private life, it seems, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics (AT&L) would prefer to keep looking for ways to save money on weapons and military equipment.

“Not much longer,” a reporter said to Kendall during a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday.

“We’ll see,” Kendall said with a smirk.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.defenseone.com/business/2016/10/kendall-pentagons-spending-less-weapons-so-let-me-keep-my-job/132563

November 4, 2015 By AMK

GSA sees wave of expiring service contracts as chance to cut duplication

A wave of professional services contracts is due to expire across the government during fiscal 2016, and the Obama administration wants to use the opportunity to consolidate that work into a smaller number of multiple-award contracting vehicles.

Or, at the very least, to ensure agencies don’t create any more of their own.

A General Services Administration (GSA) analysis of agency-by-agency contracting data shows that roughly $26 billion in existing professional services contracts will reach their end during 2016 — many more so than will finish their period of performance during 2017. Presumably, much of the work will need to be recompeted to vendors in some form or fashion, and the White House would like it to be performed under fewer contracting vehicles than exist today so that the government can get the most out of its purchasing power.

“From a federal perspective, we’re going to be trying to make sure we’re supporting agencies in looking at existing contracts first — in particular, for their existing indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts,” said Tiffany Hixson, the Region IX commissioner for the Federal Acquisition Service, at a conference organized by the Coalition for Government Procurement.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition/2015/10/gsa-sees-wave-expiring-service-contracts-chance-cut-duplication/

July 18, 2014 By AMK

Not following interim DoD rule may be costing taxpayers billions

A new report from the U.S. Department of Defense found that Navy and Marine Corps contracting personnel may be subjecting billions of dollars to waste due to non-compliance with cost reimbursement regulations.

According to the department’s internal watchdog, of 170 contracts reviewed, valued at about $7.7 billion, 135 of them, valued at about $7.54 billion were in question because contracting personnel did not consistently implement the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) revision, called the interim rule.

“As a result, contracting personnel continue to issue cost-reimbursement contracts that may increase DoD’s contracting risks because cost-reimbursement contracts provide less incentive for contractors to cut costs,” the Inspector General wrote in the report.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/12/defense-dept-contracting-personnel-may-be-wasting-/

January 14, 2014 By AMK

NDAA enshrines DoD cost-cutting as law

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has already set about implementing a plan to cut $1 billion from the Defense Department’s budget by consolidating and reorganizing top Pentagon offices.

But lawmakers want to hold his feet to the fire. The final version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by Congress Dec. 19 enshrines DoD’s ambitious cost-cutting and streamlining plan into law.

President Barack Obama signed the annual legislation setting Pentagon policy and priorities on Dec. 26.

By June, Hagel must develop a plan for streamlining DoD management headquarters “by changing or reducing the size of staffs, eliminating tiers of management, cutting functions that provide little or no added value, and consolidating overlapping and duplicative programs and offices,” according to the bill language.

The plan must include the estimated cumulative savings to be achieved over 10 years beginning in fiscal 2015 through 2024.

The law directs DoD to look across the Pentagon for potential savings, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and the headquarters of the combatant commands, among other areas.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/394/3534727/Lawmakers-enshrine-Pentagon-HQ-cost-cutting-into-law

A 30-year-low in cost growth is part of the defense acquisition undersecretary’s closing argument for why Congress shouldn’t eliminate his position.

A wave of professional services contracts is due to expire across the government during fiscal 2016, and the Obama administration wants to use the opportunity to consolidate that work into a smaller number of multiple-award contracting vehicles.

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