Pentagon | The Contracting Education Academy

January 9, 2020 By cs

A win-win contracting tool for the Pentagon and the private sector

The Defense Department is taking measures to get new capabilities to warfighters more quickly, and they’re working. One of these tools is called Other Transaction Authority.

The Pentagon has made increasing use of this contracting method, which has existed since the space race but was expanded dramatically in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act.

The value of Other Transaction Authority agreements has increased nearly 300% since 2016, from $1.4 billion to $3.7 billion, according to a Government Accountability Office report released in November.

The normal defense contracting system is, by all accounts, too slow. Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy has likened the procurement system to baseball: “It’s like having a 19-year-old kid that can throw a 100-mile-an-hour fastball but who won’t make the majors until he’s 39.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/12/30/a-win-win-contracting-tool-for-the-pentagon-and-the-private-sector/

December 11, 2019 By cs

Top DoD scientist sets up task forces to look at industrial base, infrastructure

The Defense Department’s top scientist is concerned about the state of defense businesses, critical infrastructure and security of microelectronics in the military, and he’s asking some of the Pentagon’s top minds to look into the issues.

In three Oct. 30 memos to the Defense Science Board — a group of military, civilian, science and academic experts sponsored by DoD — Defense Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin asks that task forces be set up to assess the businesses the Pentagon needs to create weapons and how to protect the military’s resiliency. He also asks a task force to look at how to ensure trustworthy microelectronics are used in military systems.

The 21^st Century Industrial Base for National Defense Task Force is tasked with taking proactive steps to increase the depth, breadth and security of the defense industrial base.

The memo gives the task force up to 12 months to study how the industrial base can respond to the need for the military to surge and mobilize. It will also look at how industry can adapt modernization practices to continuously adapt to threats.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2019/11/top-dod-scientist-sets-up-task-forces-to-look-at-industrial-base-infrastructure/

December 2, 2019 By cs

Pentagon nearly doubles use of Other Transaction Authority purchases

The Defense Department is embracing the alternative procurement method but could use more oversight of the deals, a Government Accountability Office audit found.

The Pentagon upped its use of purchases through other transaction authority, or OTAs, significantly over the past fiscal year, nearly doubling both the number of total OTA contracts and total investment.

In fiscal 2017, the Defense Department issued 384 new awards, modifications or orders for OTA contracts totaling $2.1 billion in obligations. In 2018, the Defense Department contracted 618 OTA awards totaling $3.7 billion, according to a Government Accountability Office audit released this week.

Based on data from the Federal Procurement Data System, the audit indicates the Pentagon has more than tripled its use of OTA contracts since it received enhanced authorities from the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. In that year, Defense agencies issued only 248 OTA awards for approximately $1.4 billion.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/11/pentagon-nearly-doubles-use-other-transaction-authority-purchases/161504/

November 21, 2019 By cs

DoD’s second financial audit uncovers 1,300 new deficiencies

The results of the Pentagon’s second-ever full financial audit are a decidedly mixed bag: Although officials were able to point to some areas of significant progress in managing the Defense Department’s finances over the past year, overall, auditors are uncovering new problems faster than the department is fixing them.

At this time a year ago, auditors had made 2,410 separate findings and recommendations during the department’s first-ever financial audit. In the 2019 financial report DoD issued Friday evening, officials said 556 of those had been resolved. But besides the more than 1,800 problems the department is still wrestling with from 2018, auditors made more than 1,300 new findings during the course of the latest audit.

In addition, the audit turned up a larger number of material weaknesses this year.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2019/11/dods-second-financial-audit-uncovers-1300-new-deficiencies/

November 18, 2019 By cs

The Pentagon’s climate problem

The defense acquisition community faces a climate problem — a political climate of suspicion is impeding the Pentagon’s efforts to take advantage of private industry expertise to deliver important capabilities to America’s warfighters.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper called out the delegitimizing and debilitating nature of the climate of suspicion when, during his confirmation hearing, he observed: “I think the presumption is, for some reason, anybody who comes from the business or the corporate world is corrupt.” This phenomenon contributes to unnecessary delays to critical contract awards, discourages recruitment of leaders with industry experience, and deters strategic collaboration with industry partners.

Government faces a growing need for access to technologies at the frontier of innovation, requiring greater reliance on engagement with private sector innovators to deliver these tools. Although legitimate concerns about conflicts of interest should always receive fair hearing, when taken to extremes, they become detrimental to sound national security policy.

The controversy over the awarding of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, contract illustrates how the current climate of suspicion can undermine national defense programs. The JEDI cloud will act as a centralized cloud computing service for all of the Defense Department’s unclassified, classified and top-secret information. The contract will offer its eventual awardee revenue of up to $10 billion over 10 years. With such a lucrative deal up for grabs, the award process has become contentious, including allegations of bias in the award decision. Most prominently, Oracle Corp. filed a lawsuit against the department claiming that conflicts of interest by recently hired Pentagon procurement personnel previously employed by Amazon Web Services — the widely speculated favorite to win the JEDI contract award — prejudicially affected the procurement.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2019/11/5/the-pentagons-climate-problem

The Defense Department is taking measures to get new capabilities to warfighters more quickly, and they’re working. One of these tools is called Other Transaction Authority.

The Defense Department’s top scientist is concerned about the state of defense businesses, critical infrastructure and security of microelectronics in the military, and he’s asking some of the Pentagon’s top minds to look into the issues.

The Defense Department is embracing the alternative procurement method but could use more oversight of the deals, a Government Accountability Office audit found.

The defense acquisition community faces a climate problem — a political climate of suspicion is impeding the Pentagon’s efforts to take advantage of private industry expertise to deliver important capabilities to America’s warfighters.

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