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June 25, 2012 By AMK

Pentagon expansion of acquisition staff hurt by funding uncertainties

The Defense Department’s ongoing effort to expand and better train its ranks of acquisition employees has been hindered by shifts in funding and the absence of an overarching strategy, auditors said in a report released Thursday.

A Government Accountability Office review of the $1.8 billion Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Fund found that the department “has not collected and distributed funds within required time frames, sometimes delaying distribution to components until the following fiscal year.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2012/06/pentagon-expansion-acquisition-staff-hurt-funding-uncertainties/56403/?oref=govexec_today_nl.

Read the GAO report here: Defense Acquisition Workforce – Improved Processes, Guidance and Planning Needed to Enhance Use of Workforce Funds – GAO – 06.22.2012

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition training, acquisition workforce, budget cuts, DoD, GAO, insourcing, OFPP, OMB, outsourcing

June 19, 2012 By AMK

Defense bill dilutes agencies’ business judgment, experts say

As separate versions of the fiscal 2013 National Defense Authorization Act wind through Congress, experts say provisions will further complicate the already rigid procurement process, even pulling back officials’ authority to make key decisions.

The government has invested money in training and rebuilding an acquisition workforce that has strong business prowess. Federal officials now want the acquisition workforce to use its business-smarts to get the best value for each tax dollar spent.

Keep reading this article at: http://fcw.com/articles/2012/06/15/ndaa-acquisition-business-judgment.aspx.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition workforce, bundling, DoD, insourcing, outsourcing, risk assessment, small business goals

May 30, 2012 By AMK

Senators to DOD: Use more of your own employees

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta received a letter from 26 senators April 25 who urged him to use more civilian employees instead of contractors.

The senators, led by Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), wrote that they understand the need to cut back on civilian employees because of tightened budgets. However, they raised concerns that the private sector wasn’t given similar constraints.

Keep reading this story at: http://fcw.com/articles/2012/05/02/senators-dod-workforce-constraints.aspx.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition strategy, acquisition workforce, DoD, inherently governmental functions, insourcing, outsourcing

May 1, 2012 By AMK

GAO reports Defense Department barely moving toward a comprehensive service contracts database

Earlier in April, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the second in a series of new, congressionally mandated reports assessing the Department of Defense’s (DOD) efforts to compile an inventory of service contracts. Congress intends for the Pentagon to include these reviews in its yearly budget work and expects “inherently governmental work” currently performed by private contractors to be brought back “in-house.” This review process will help the Pentagon find ways to reduce costs and limit the over-reliance on contractors.

Seventy cents of every contracting dollar spent by the federal government in 2010 was spent by the Pentagon; $371 billion of the $530 billion in federal contract spending was awarded through DOD contracts. Moreover, DOD contracting is continually plagued by stories of $435 hammers, 19 cent washers that cost almost $1 million to ship, and other impossible-to-justify charges.

As a result, Congress has enacted legislation demanding that the Pentagon take steps to improve its acquisition and service contract management systems. In 2008, Congress inserted language into that year’s National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Pentagon to compile and review an annual inventory of service contracts, including the collection of key data, such as:

  • The “function and missions” performed by the contractor
  • The name of the contracting organization
  • The funding source and operating agency paying the contract
  • The number of full-time contractor employees that the contract is paying for

Additionally, Congress required the Pentagon to integrate the information on contractors into its annual strategic workforce plans and budget justification materials.

Congress directed the GAO to assess the progress DOD and its departments were making in cataloging this data over the following three years. The first report in the series, released in January 2011, paints a picture of disorganization and inefficiency.

The Pentagon has no database that officials can use to create a common inventory. In fact, due to the challenges in addressing “the different requirements of the military departments and components,” the Pentagon estimates that it will not be able to field the common database system until 2016, which may be too optimistic since GAO found that “DOD has not established milestones or time frames for the development and implementation of the data system” within its work plan.

Pentagon departments have to rely on the Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation (FPDS-NG) to compile their inventory reports, but the FPDS-NG dataset does not contain much of the specific data DOD is looking for, including multiple services provided through a single contracting action, services provided through a contract predominantly for supplies, or contractor employment numbers.

Moreover, GAO found that some Navy commands contacted were not even aware that they were supposed to conduct a review, and Navy headquarters did not follow up to ensure that they had conducted the inventories. In fact, the Pentagon was not able to tell Congress that all DOD departments were either collecting or had plans to start collecting the appropriate contractor data, including employment figures, until November 2011. All other federal agencies began collecting this information earlier.

Although not comprehensive, the 2009 inventory was able to identify more than 2,000 instances of contractors performing inherently governmental functions, as determined by Army and Air Force reviews. When GAO performed a random check to see if these jobs had been converted back to civil service jobs, they found private contractors still in eight out of 12 positions. While GAO found that DOD made some improvements between its 2009 and 2010 service contract inventory reports, providing greater detail and higher levels of accuracy, the Pentagon plan for establishing a department-wide service contract database has yet to incorporate appropriate milestones and timeframes or to hold managers responsible for in-sourcing contracts.

— published Apr. 17, 2012 by OMB Watch at http://www.ombwatch.org/node/12046.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition strategy, DoD, efficiency, FPDS, GAO, inherently governmental functions, insourcing, outsourcing, service contracts

April 23, 2012 By AMK

DOD struggles to limit contractors to appropriate jobs, GAO finds

The challenge of separating inherently governmental work from contractor-appropriate work may still bedevil the Defense department.

Defense officials have allowed contractors to perform work that only a federal employee should do because, in part, military departments have not done well in itemizing their services contracts, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

Army inventory reviews of fiscal 2009 services contracts found 1,935 instances of contractors conducting inherently government functions, or work only a federal employee is supposed to do. The Air Force found 91 instances, the GAO reported. In its review of 12 cases related to inherently governmental functions, GAO found officials had not rectified the situation in eight cases.

Although the study was from fiscal 2009, GAO said it’s not possible to know yet if the problems are solved. GAO reported that defense officials have made some changes in gathering data in its fiscal 2010 contract inventory reviews that could help. However, officials said they could not get a complete picture for the reviews until at least 2016.

One case detailed in the report involved a $6.1 million IT support contract at Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Defense Language Institute. A contractor held a “project manager” function, which officials said was an inherently governmental function. The contractor continued to perform the work at least through the period of the study.

In two cases, contracting and program officials didn’t know that the inventory review process deemed as inherently governmental a contractor’s work on an engineering support contract at an acquisition support center. The contractor provided technical expertise and coordination with the program office, other military departments, Congress and private companies. The other case involved a $409,000 Air National Guard contract for financial analytical support.

Both contracts had expired, but the work continued under subsequent contracts, GAO reported.

Officials also said a $120,000 task order for advice and advocacy on Air National Guard positions and programs to staff and commands included inherently governmental work.

In four instances, contractors served as systems coordinators at the Army.

Military officials have several ways to address the problem. They include:
•Modifying the statement of work.
•Assigning the work to a government employee.
•Stopping the work altogether.

Getting better at itemizing annual services contracts would also help, according to the report. The inventories are intended to make it plain which jobs should be off limits to contractors. Officials could stay abreast of what’s happening by keeping detailed records about each services contract.

Nevertheless, GAO said military departments’ fiscal year 2009 inventories of contracted services were incomplete. Besides the Army and Air Force, Navy headquarters officials had no assurance that their commands conducted the reviews, and GAO found no evidence at the commands it contacted that officials had conducted the required reviews.

GAO recommended that officials describe in policy who’s in charge in doing the reviews and the authority they have to get them done correctly. DOD agreed with the recommendation.

About the Author: Matthew Weigelt is a senior writer covering acquisition and procurement for Federal Computer Week. This article appeared Apr. 9, 2012 at http://fcw.com/articles/2012/04/09/army-air-force-inherently-governmental-function.aspx?s=fcwdaily_100412.

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Air National Guard, Army, DoD, GAO, inherently governmental functions, insourcing, outsourcing, service contracts

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