Download or read book Program Oversight of Contractors on the Battlefield written by Gurdev K. Buttar and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The use of contractors in the battlefield is not new. They have been employed throughout history to fulfill combat and combat support functions. However, the magnitude of reliance on contractors has grown leading to a rapid rise of an uncontrolled industry. Reduction in force and defense budgets, out-sourcing, complex technology, and operational tempo has forced the United Stated Government to rely heavily on non-uniformed support to carry out mission objectives in a theater of operations. Contracting has had several problems to include insufficient oversight, transparency and accountability, and ambiguous legal status potentially leading to contract waste, fraud and abuse. To reduce waste, fraud and abuse there are several tools that the federal government can use. This paper will focus on those tools that are not being effectively utilized and provide recommendations for improving contractor performance and accountability, contracting and management systems and practices, as well as, the skills of the acquisition workforce.
Download or read book Coordinating Contract Support on the Battlefield written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Military Operations written by William M. Solis and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2008-11 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The DoD relies extensively on contractors to support deployed forces for services that range from food and housing services to intelligence analysis. Since 1997, there have been reports on DoD¿s shortcomings in managing and overseeing its use of contractor support. Part of the difficulty attributed to these shortcomings is that no one person or entity made the decision to send 129,000 contractors to Iraq. Rather, numerous DoD activities were involved, thus adding to the complexity of the problems. This testimony focuses on the problems that DoD has faced, & future challenges, in managing & overseeing its contractor support to deployed forces. Charts & tables.
Download or read book Warfighter Support Cultural Change Needed to Improve How DoD Plans for and Manages Operational Contract Support written by William M. Solis and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, the DoD has relied on contractors to support contingency operations and recognizes them as part of the total force. In Iraq and Afghanistan contractor personnel now outnumber deployed troops. In Iraq more than 95,000 DoD contractors support 92,000 troops, and in Afghanistan more than 112,000 DoD contractors support approx. 94,000 troops. DoD anticipates that the number of contractors will grow in Afghanistan as the dept. increases its troop presence in that country. Several long-standing challenges have hindered DoD¿s ability to manage and oversee contractors at deployed locations. This testimony addresses the extent to which DoD has institutionalized operational contract support. Illustrations.
Download or read book Warfighter Support Continued Actions Needed by DoD to Improve and Institutionalize Contractor Support in Contingency Operations written by William M. Solis and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-08 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The DoD relies greatly on contractors to support its current operations and is likely to continue to depend on contractors in support of future operations. As of Dec. 2009, DoD estimated that over 207,000 contractor personnel were supporting operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. DoD expects to increase the number of contractors as more troops deploy to Afghanistan. This testimony addresses: (1) the challenges DoD faces when trying to provide management and oversight of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan; and (2) the extent to which DoD has made progress in institutionalizing a department-wide approach to managing and overseeing operational contract support. Charts and tables.
Download or read book Contractors and War written by Christopher Kinsey and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-25 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. military is no longer based on a Cold War self-sufficient model. Today's armed forces are a third smaller than they were during the Cold War, and yet are expected to do as much if not more than they did during those years. As a result, a transformation is occurring in the way the U.S. government expects the military to conduct operations—with much of that transformation contingent on the use of contractors to deliver support to the armed forces during military campaigns and afterwards. Contractors and War explains the reasons behind this transformation and evaluates how the private sector will shape and be shaped by future operations. The authors are drawn from a range of policy, legislative, military, legal, and academic backgrounds. They lay out the philosophical arguments supporting the use of contractors in combat and stabilization operations and present a spectrum of arguments that support and criticize emergent private sector roles. The book provides fresh policy guidance to those who will research, direct, and carry out future deployments.
Download or read book Contractors on the Battlefield When and How Using the US Military s Risk Management Framework to Learn from the Balkans Support Contract written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, the US military has wrestled with decisions about when and how to use private contractors, especially "Contradors on the Battlefield." Reports of mixed performance, inexperienced contracting officers, miscommunication, and profiteering date back to the Revolutionary War. History may be "living history," in part, because decision-makers have lacked adequate means of systematically anticipating future outcomes and harvesting lessons from the past. The US military's risk-management framework, a familiar tool in other operational settings, may fill that void. To illustrate, this paper applies the framework to the Army's Balkans Support Contract (BSC); the contract covers a variety of life support, transportation, and maintenance services and has registered a substantial track record in deployment. The application demonstrates the utility of the risk-management framework and draws general lessons from the BSC experience for selecting service providers and for contract development, management, and oversight. Four deceptively simple lessons emerge from the analysis: first, not all risks are inherently contractual; most are environmental or activity-based. Second, risk is dynamic; appropriate responses change over time. Third, a contract is only as good as its customer; design and execution determine outcomes. And fourth, risk management is not risk elimination; not all risk can or should be eliminated.
Download or read book Warfighter Support written by William M. Solis and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-08 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contractors provide a broad range of support to U.S. forces deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, with the number of contractors at times exceeding the number of military personnel in each country. The DoD has acknowledged shortcomings in how the role of contractors was addressed in its planning for Iraq and Afghanistan. This report assesses DoD's development of contract support plans. It examines: (1) what progress DoD has made in developing operational contract support annexes for its operation plans; (2) the extent to which contract requirements are included in other sections of operation plans; and (3) DoD's progress in establishing a long-term capability to include operational contract support requirements in operation plans. Charts and tables.
Download or read book Department of Defense Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan written by Moshe Schwartz and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010-02 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: (1) Background; (2) Managing Contractors during Contingency Contracting; (3) Number and Roles of Contractors in CENTCOM, in Iraq, in Afghanistan; (4) Efforts to Improve Contractor Management and Oversight; (5) Contractors in DoD Strategy and Doctrines: (a) Can Contractors Undermine U.S. Efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan?; (b) DoD Strategy and Doctrine: The National Defense Strategy and Quadrennial Defense Review; Field Manual on Operations; Field Manual on Counterinsurgency; New Doctrine, DoD Instructions, and Other Efforts; (6) Selected Congressional Hearings and Legislation; (7) Contract Management, Oversight, and Coordination: Training Contractors and the Military in Contingency Contracting. Illus.
Download or read book Oversight of Contractor Performance Information written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book How Should the Army Use Contractors on the Battlefield Assessing Comparative Risk in Sourcing Decisions written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using contractors on the battlefield is risky, but the U.S. Army has relied on contractors on the battlefield throughout its history. Beginning with the Vietnam War, a variety of factors have led to growing dependence on contractors. Given the risks that contractors impose, is this increasing dependence appropriate? Throughout history, Army leaders have decried the risks associated with using contractors even as they continued to bring them to the battlefield to provide critical combat service support (CSS) activities. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs (ASA [M AND RA]) was concerned that many parts of the Army may make decisions that affect the use of contractors on the battlefield without adequately considering the effects of their decisions on military readiness. ASA (M AND RA) asked the Arroyo Center to examine this issue and recommend improvements. This report identifies the major decisions that shape the Army's use of contractors on the battlefield. It explains the arguments that have shaped these decisions. Drawing on the Army's own approach to assessing risk, Army and other Department of Defense (DoD) documents, field interviews, literature by Army personnel about their own experiences with contractors in deployments, and a detailed case study of the largest contract supporting Army deployed forces at the time, the report offers a conceptual framework the Army could use to revisit these decisions. The framework should make the connection between these decisions and their sourcing consequences more visible and lead to Army sourcing decisions more nearly consistent with its strategic goals. The report focuses on a choice between contract and military sources, but the framework could easily be applied to a broad set of alternatives.
Download or read book Off loading the Abuse of Inter agency Contracting to Avoid Competition and Oversight Requirements written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Contractors Support of U S Operations in Iraq written by Daniel Frisk and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contractors play a substantial role in supporting the U.S.¿s current military, reconstruction, and diplomatic operations in Iraq. This report examines the use of contractors in the Iraq theater from 2003 through 2007. It provides an overview of the fed. gov¿t. costs of employing contractors in Iraq and in nearby countries, the type of products and services they provide, the number of personnel working on those contracts, comparisons of past and present use of contractors during U.S. military operations, and the use of contractors to provide security. Also investigates the command-and-control structure between the U.S. gov¿t. and contract employees, and the legal issues surrounding contractor personnel working in Iraq. Tables and graphs.
Download or read book Contractors on the Battlefield written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Going to War with Defense Contractors written by Ryan M. Novak and published by . This book was released on 2004-03 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The escalating use of contractors on the battlefield in highly critical operational areas is a trend that is increasing across the DoD. Contractors have a vital role supporting CONUS missions, but they are also on the battlefield in defense of our nation, supporting the warfighter and their weapon systems. As the use of contractors on the battlefield continues to gain favor within the DoD, and as contractor s roles continue to expand and become more critical, it is imperative to improve the current way that the DoD, and specifically Air Force acquisition professionals, procure such services. This research analyzes inputs from DoD Policy Experts, Contractor Policy Experts, Army Policy Experts, Air Force Policy Experts, and 13 Air Force Program Offices that use contractors on the battlefield to support, maintain, and/or troubleshoot their weapon systems. Content analysis and pattern matching were used to determine the current status of battlefield acquisition, draw conclusions, and make recommendations. Several problem areas in this area of acquisition were identified as well as best practices and lessons learned.
Download or read book Contractors on the Battlefield Planning Considerations and Requirements written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contractors on the Battlefield: Planning Considerations and Requirements introduces the basics and foundation for those who want to learn about the history, terminology, and process for obtaining contractor support on the battlefield. The research paper is primarily rooted in Joint, Army, and Air Force manuals and regulations. Personal experiences from the author, Air Force, and Army students attending the Air Command and Staff College compliment the research with current field applications and experiences. The research paper also presents a broad range of growing concerns and requirements for using contractors on the battlefield. However, additional sources are provided for those who want to learn specifics of related topics and concerns. The research paper can best be described as "Contractors on the Battlefield 101" for officers, non-commissioned officers and contractors.
Download or read book Military Operations DOD Needs to Address Contract Oversight and Quality Assurance Issues for Contracts Used to Support Contingency Operations written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department of Defense (DOD) uses contractors to meet many of its logistical and operational support needs. With the global war on terrorism, there has been a significant increase in deployment of contractor personnel to areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan. In its fiscal year 2007 report, the House Appropriations Committee directed GAO to examine the link between the growth in DOD's operation and maintenance costs and DOD's increased reliance on service contracts. GAO determined (1) the extent to which costs for selected contracts increased and the factors causing the increases, (2) the extent to which DOD provided oversight for selected contracts, and (3) the reasons for DOD's use of contractors to support contingency operations. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed a nonprobability sample of seven DOD contracts for services that provide vital support to contingency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. GAO reviewed contract requirements, funding documents and DOD guidance for these contracts and interviewed DOD and contractor personnel. To ensure effective oversight, GAO recommends that DOD adequately staff oversight positions with qualified personnel, and address inconsistencies in maintaining contract files and implementing quality assurance principles. DOD concurred with each of GAO's recommendations and stated the Army was aware of and addressing the identified problems.
