Reducing War Time Waste
The 15 strategic recommendations made by the Commission on Wartime Contracting to improve contingency contracting; improves on those that “do” contracting, however, more emphasis on training those that submit requirements (requiring activity) for contract administrative actions are needed. The lack of acquisition knowledge from the requiring activity brings uncertainty of the procedures, in-correct statement of work (SOW), and unrealistic timelines. These mistakes result in increased time to construct, administer, overwatch, modify, and/or cancel the contract requirement; which ultimately lead to increased costs.
The Army has developed a course to enhance the requiring activities understanding of government contracting, called Operational Contracting Support (OCS). This course, however does not go into the weeds on how to articulate the actual commodity or services needed by the requiring activity.
In order to immediately improve on operational contracting by the requiring activity, the Army needs to embed an individual with an acquisition skill set in their units. The Army at one point had 51C Contracting Officers at the brigade level, but this skill set was not utilized correctly nor was the correct MOS for this position. Operational contracting is so unique and complex, the Army needs to ensure the individual with the right training fills the position.
In order to do this, I feel the Army needs to do one of two methods, both leading to the same course of action. The Army either needs to establish a new MOS dedicated to writing requirements or to actually place a DoD acquisition professional to write these requirements. Either one of these two individuals would need to have an understand of private industry, how to maneuver within this arena, and ultimately know how to articulate the acquisition language.
This individual will be maintained at the Brigade