Command Set Up At U.S. Central Command In Tampa Battles Contractor Waste and Fraud

Posted Aug 31, 2011 by Howard Altman

Updated Aug 31, 2011 at 05:46 PM

With the Congressionally chartered Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan finding at least $31 billion lost in contract waste and fraud, the Department of Defense today announced some major reforms, as well as highlighting programs already in place, including the Joint Theater Support Contracting Command at U.S. Central Command in Tampa.

“We share the Commission’s commitment to improving wartime contracting; in particular we commend the Commission for shining a spotlight on the risks of overreliance on contractors, on the need to strengthen the contracting function at the agencies, on the value of increasing competition in contracting and on the importance of holding contractors accountable for their performance,” Pentagon spokesman Marine Col. Dave Lapan said in an email to defense reporters today. “The Commission has focused on a set of serious issues that the Department has also indentified as lessons learned from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The Pentagon, said Lapan, has “already implemented a number of steps to improve contingency contracting based on the Department’s own analysis, as well as recommendations from the independent reviews of the Government Accountability Office and the Inspector General and the Commission’s previous publications and interim reports.” 

The Joint Theater Support Contracting Command was stood up last year at Centcom and was a realignment of the previous Joint ContractingCommand-Iraq/Afghanistan.

Some of the other steps taken to improve contingency contracting, according to Lapan:

.Investigation and prosecution of individuals engaging in fraud

.Increased staffing for contract oversight including having more military personnel in the acquisition corps and increasing the number of contracting officer representatives providing contractor oversight to better prevent and detect fraud

.Better training for deployed military supervising and interacting with contractor personnel

.Establishing policy and planning requirements for Operational Contractor Support in future contingencies at the Joint Staff and in Departmental guidance

.Focusing on project sustainability, particularly for the Afghan National Security Forces

.Increasing competition in contingency contracting by competing a new LOGCAP contract and qualifying more vendors so that under the LOGCAP IV contract there will be ongoing competition between contractors for task orders throughout the contract’s life

.Increased capacity of the acquisition workforce since 2009 as part of a deliberate Department-wide initiative to rebuild the acquisition workforce.

.DoD created and filled 9,000 new acquisition workforce positions, strengthening the contracting workforce and contributing to rebuilding the Defense Contract Management and Defense Contract Audit Agency.