WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials said Monday improved, intensified training and more personnel are integral to better oversight and administration of government contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, which total $80 million in taxpayers’ money in the last five years.
A competitive bidding system and the performance of contracting officer’s representatives and a transition to a new system of contracting drove much of the hearing before the Commission on Wartime Contracting, the congressionally appointed panel set up to help oversee defense contracting.
Pentagon officials testifying Monday said increased oversight of defense contracts remains of critical importance (Michael Beller/MNS)
Commission co-chairman Michael Thibault, who spent more than 30 years working for the Defense Contract Audit Agency, set the tone for the hearing right away, asking a panel of Pentagon officials about contracts, “Is there any question in anyone’s mind that the first avenue is competition?”
The panel, which featured Shay Assad, director of defense procurement for the Pentagon, Edward Harrington, the deputy assistant secretary of procurement, and Lt. Gen. William Phillips, unanimously said competition is the most important aspect of any contract. Assad said, “We need to do more. Taxpayers get a better deal when we compete, there’s no doubt about it.”
A contracting officer’s representative, or COR, is generally a non-commissioned officer who monitors the performance of contractors in the field. The panel members lamented the fact that they have too few CORs, yet Harrington said it only takes two weeks to train them. When asked why CORs didn’t receive any attention until recently, Assad said, “It’s a question of resources and bringing them to bear. When you get the vice chief of staff of the Army coming forward and saying, ‘You will have CORs,’ it’s a very powerful message.
“We had shortcomings in the past and there’s been a significant recognition of those shortcomings,” Assad said.
Phillips, who worked with contractors in both Afghanistan and Iraq, said, “We have to institutionalize the way we do things. We’ve made tremendous progress over the last year, but still have quite a ways to go.”
Monday’s second round of testimony before the Commission on Wartime Contracting saw two contracting executives give their account of the situation in Southwest Asia.
Jay Ward, chief operating officer of AECOM Government Services and Terry Raney, senior vice president and division group manager for CACI International, Inc., testified about potential conflicts of interest, CORs and subcontractors, and how their businesses work with the government.
Perhaps most telling, however, was Aegis Defence Systems refusal to participate. The company issued a statement to the commission, saying it could not send a representative due to “time, resources and contracting constraints.”
The commission took issue with that explanation, stating all other agencies and companies have found a way to comply.
“All previously invited witnesses to commission hearings have time, resource and contracting constraints,” co-Chairman Thibault said. “These witnesses have worked with this commission to balance that workload with their responsibility to testify at public hearings.”
Thibault also said they will “notify appropriate Congressional committees” concerning Aegis absence at the hearing.
Also playing a large part in Monday’s discussion was the transition to a new system of contracting designed to foster competition. The Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, or LOGCAP, governs the way in which the government enters into contracts with civilians. The program has gone through a few iterations, as LOGCAP IV was recently adopted. LOGCAP III generated debate surrounding its legitimacy after one company, KBR Inc., received a one-year contract with nine one-year options, allowing it to remain essentially unchallenged for 10 years.
That’s why when panel members said 97 to 98 percent of the contracts in Iraq or Afghanistan were awarded after a competitive bid process the commission was dubious.
“It’s ridiculous to call a LOGCAP III a competitive contract,” said Christopher Shays, co-chairman of the commission.
As the morning session came to a close, competition among contractors remained under fire.
“Service contractors are getting away with murder in theater,” said Commissioner Charles Tiefer, who was general counsel for the House of Representatives before becoming a professor of government contracting at the University of Baltimore Law School. “The Army does not have enough personnel to do much about it and competition is at a terribly low level.”