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May 4, 2015 By AMK

Becoming a ‘Chaosmeister’

Acquisition professionals can achieve results beyond their most positive expectations by approaching the current challenges and chaotic acquisition environment as operators — they can innovate and adapt tools and processes, creating networks and coalitions.

These are the times that try [our] souls.” What was said in Revolutionary War times seems as apt today. Resources are shrinking. Our workforce is changing significantly with the departure of the baby boomers. The warfighter’s needs are in great flux, creating instability in Department of Defense (DoD) and military Services requirements. The gulf between Congress and the Executive Branch continues to widen, causing inconsistent direction and uncoordinated oversight. Industry is changing how it works with DoD, adding to the turmoil. Defense acquisition, always a tough job, is getting tougher.

Is the defense acquirer’s job in a “no-win” situation? It depends on our perspective.

If we approach the challenge purely as administrators of processes, who can only do what we are explicitly told to do, we are indeed in for an unrewarding, unfulfilling time.

If we approach the challenge as operators—committed to innovating and adapting tools and processes to support our goals, creating networks and coalitions that can enlarge our ability to advance our projects, striving to understand the chaotic operational environment of federal and defense acquisition, and leveraging opportunities that come from that understanding—we can achieve results beyond our most positive expectations.

Download this article from Defense AT&L magazine here: Becoming a Chaosmeister – May-June 2015 – Defense AT&L

April 15, 2014 By AMK

GAO issues annual anti-deficiency report

Each year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) produces a report that identifies instances where federal agencies obligated or spent funds in advance or in excess of appropriate approval of funding. This reporting is conducted in accordance with the Antideficiency Act which prohibits such expenditures.

GAO’s summary of agency Antideficiency Act Reports for fiscal year 2013 includes unaudited information extracted from agency Antideficiency Act reports filed with GAO, as required by section 1401 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-447, 118 Stat. 2809, 3192 (Dec. 8, 2004). Each report entry includes a brief description of the violation, remedial actions taken, and links to individual agency reporting letters. For more information on individual violations and actions taken, contact the agencies filing the reports.

The latest report can be found here.

Per 31 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1517(a), the Antideficiency Act prohibits federal agencies from obligating or expending federal funds in advance or in excess of an appropriation, apportionment, or certain administrative subdivisions of those funds. The act also prohibits agencies from accepting voluntary services (31 U.S.C. §§ 1342).

Specifically, the Antideficiency Act requires agencies violating its proscriptions to:

Report to the President and Congress all relevant facts and a statement of actions taken, and
Transmit a copy of each report to the Comptroller General on the same date the report is transmitted to the President and Congress.

GAO compiles and presents unaudited information from reports filed each fiscal year, including copies of the agency’s cover letters transmitting reports of violations.

December 20, 2013 By AMK

Breaking News: Senate sends defense bill to President, expected to be signed

The Senate approved a sweeping defense policy bill late Thursday (Dec. 19, 2013).

The House, which has recessed for the holidays, has already approved the mammoth measure. And President Barack Obama is expected to sign it.

Overall, the bill would authorize about $527 billion in base defense spending for the current fiscal year, plus funds for the war in Afghanistan and nuclear weapons programs overseen by the Energy Department. The numbers are in line with the Pentagon’s request but more than $30 billion above the levels set under the bipartisan budget agreement passed in Congress this week.

Appropriations committees are expected to work through the holidays on spending bills for passage before the Jan. 15, 2014 expiration of the current continuing spending resolution that funds the federal government. If Congress is able to act in time, it would finally give the Defense Department and the rest of the government a budget.

The elevated spending levels in the new defense authorization bill allowed the Armed Services committees to avoid tough strategic choices about what to cut and what to keep under the spending caps put in place by the Budget Control Act of 2011. But it also means the bill is out of sync with the fiscal realities facing the Defense Department.

The 84-15 vote followed a drawn-out partisan spat that at times appeared to threaten the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Senate Republicans, particularly, fumed about the compromise legislation’s movement through Congress on a fast track, with no opportunity for amendments.

For more details on this story, visit: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/senate-national-defense-authorization-act-barack-obama-101364.html

Download a summary of the FY14 National Defense Authorization Act at: National Defense Authorization Act for FY14 – DRAFT BILL – 113hr1960rh 06.2013

July 25, 2013 By AMK

Lawmakers protect funding to refurbish Humvees

A U.S. House of Representatives panel has preserved funding to refurbish Humvees despite an Army request to shift some of the money to pay for more urgent needs.

The House Armed Services Committee, headed by Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., denied the service’s request to transfer $171 million from a program to refurbish, or re-capitalize, the iconic four-wheel drive High Mobility Multi-purposed Wheeled Vehicle, or HMMWV, known as Humvee and made by AM General LLC, based in South Bend, Ind.

“These funds are necessary … to sustain reset as units return home from Afghanistan and other deployments,” McKeon and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the highest-ranking Democrat on the panel, wrote to Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale in a letter dated June 21 and obtained by Military.com. “Rapid reset is vital to overall unit readiness, and … these vehicles could be used to address current shortfalls in the Army National Guard.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2013/06/28/lawmakers-protect-funding-to-refurbish-humvees/

October 11, 2012 By AMK

Continuing resolution’s effect on sequestration explained

The potential sequestration scheduled for January 2013 creates a lot of uncertainty for the government, but if that dreaded scenario occurs, then the recently enacted six-month spending measure makes some things clearer.

Federal employees have wondered how the six-month continuing resolution funding the government through March would affect the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 2, 2013. One Government Executive reader asked, “I think a lot of us are confused about how the CR at 2012 levels inter-relate with sequestration impacts. Will we toodle along at 2012 funding levels for six months and then [see] draconian cuts in the second half of the year if the reductions are implemented?”

The short answer is, no. Here’s the long answer: If lawmakers can’t agree on an alternative, then agencies will use the sequestration formula to assign cuts in January to more than 1,200 budget accounts, as the law mandates. Those cuts will be apportioned throughout the remaining nine months of fiscal 2013; the figures in the formula are based on the current six-month continuing resolution that sets fiscal 2013 funding at the level the 2011 Budget Control Act mandates, keeping spending at the fiscal 2012 rate for agencies and federal programs with an across-the-board increase of 0.6 percent over the base rate, for a total of $1.047 trillion.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/oversight/2012/10/stopgap-spending-measure-provides-clarity-sequester-threat/58595/?oref=management_agenda_nl.

Acquisition professionals can achieve results beyond their most positive expectations by approaching the current challenges and chaotic acquisition environment as operators — they can innovate and adapt tools and processes, creating networks and coalitions.

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