Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://dair.nps.edu/handle/123456789/1565
Title: A Review of Alternative Methods to Inventory Contracted Services in the Department of Defense
Authors: Nancy Y. Moore
Molly Dunigan
Frank Camm
Samantha Cherney
Clifford A. Grammich
Judith D. Mele
Evan D. Peet
Anita Szafran
Keywords: Alternative Methods
Inventory
Contracted Services
ICS
Issue Date: 30-Apr-2018
Publisher: Acquisition Research Program
Citation: Published--Unlimited Distribution
Series/Report no.: Services Contracting
SYM-AM-18-053
Abstract: Since the late 1940s, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) purchases of services have increased consistently, from less than 30% to more than 60% of the department's overall budget. This increase reflects both the growth of services in the overall economy and the initiatives of political administrations over time to procure services from the private sector on behalf of the DoD to the greatest extent possible. Nevertheless, such growth has led to concerns regarding contracting of inherently governmental functions, contract oversight, contractor accountability, and contract waste, fraud, and abuse. Concerns about the growth in the DoD's purchases of services have led Congress to institute several policies aimed at strengthening oversight of such purchases. These policies have included 2001 legislation requiring the DoD to collect and track data on the procurement of services, 2002 and 2008 congressional language expressing an interest in spend analyses that might be used to increase buying leverage and improve contractor performance, and a 2008 requirement in Title 10, Section 2330a, of the U.S. Code establishing the DoD Inventory of Contracted Services (ICS) to collect information on activities performed under DoD service contracts. Concern regarding both the methods for collecting data in the ICS and the utility of these data led Congress to request that the Secretary of Defense review the methods used to create the ICS, as well as the products resulting from these efforts. Congress specifically requested that the Secretary of Defense examine the extent to which the ICS provides data on service contracts that are useful to the DoD and congressional stakeholders, the extent of gaps between ICS data and data that the DoD and Congress would find most useful, whether existing databases or other information technology systems could provide a timely solution and data that are relevant to workforce planning, and the strengths and weaknesses of different methods for reporting on the DoD's use of contractor personnel. The DoD asked RAND to assist the Secretary of Defense in fulfilling this congressional mandate. This report documents the final results of that research. It explores the congressional intent underlying the ICS requirement, gaps between the ICS data and data most useful to the DoD and congressional stakeholders, insights on the issues that Congress seeks to address through the ICS requirement that can be derived from analyses of non-ICS data found in alternative databases, and the strengths and weaknesses of different methods for estimating and reporting contractor personnel use.
Description: Acquisition Management / Defense Acquisition Community Contributor
URI: https://dair.nps.edu/handle/123456789/1565
Appears in Collections:Annual Acquisition Research Symposium Proceedings & Presentations

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