Defense procurement chief backs interagency contracts
Top acquisition official says department is looking both inside and out to meet its acquisition needs.
Defense procurement officials have been encouraged to weigh all potential contracting vehicles to get the best value on purchases, a senior department official said Monday.
Shay Assad, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, said in an interview with Government Executive that this includes consideration of interagency contracting shops.
"I have been very clear to our employees that if an interagency provider, such as NASA's [Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement, or SEWP], or the Interior Department, or whatever is the most effective way to buy the goods and services, that's the way to go," Assad said.
The Pentagon spends about $23 billion annually on interagency contracts, Assad said. A good portion of that is spent on General Services Administration schedule contracts. But business with GSA slowed following the discovery of improper contracting practices and misuse of funds at GSA regional offices, and Defense began developing more in-house contract vehicles.
Defense and GSA officials signed an agreement in December 2006 to foster better relations. Assad said Monday that the relationship is healthy, but Defense is seeking competition among a variety of contracting entities within and outside the department.
GSA has to make sure that its schedule contracts are "fresh" and have the most competitive pricing available, Assad said.
"It is all about ensuring that our warfighters get what they need on time and at a fair and reasonable price," Assad said. "We want to ensure whatever contracting tool they use, interagency or within, we want to compete."
He added that GSA has made significant progress correcting problems that surfaced in 2003 investigations, such as misuse of technology contracts. GSA's Get It Right program was important, he said, because the Defense Department won't "talk to an agency that can't get it right."
The December 2006 agreement outlines two dozen areas where both GSA and Defense need work. Assad said he is satisfied that the Pentagon has commanded the attention of GSA's senior management.
GSA is an effective information technology support services provider, Assad said, adding that he is interested in finding other ways that GSA can be helpful.
GSA's Veterans Technology Services governmentwide acquisition contract is an example of a good tool, he said.
In an April 12 memorandum, Kenneth Krieg, Defense undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said the department should look at using VETS to help meet its congressionally mandated goal of awarding 3 percent of business to small firms owned by service-disabled veterans.
Assad said he has not closely examined GSA's initial award of its next generation of governmentwide telecommunications contract known as Networx and has not formed an opinion on it yet.
Stuart Hazlett, who joined Assad's office on March 16 as deputy director of strategic sourcing, will be examining categories of purchases in an attempt to determine the best way to get good deals.
"We're not going to apologize for asking the [Defense] services to carefully examine how they buy things and to make sure that they are getting the best," Assad said.