Analysis of Competition and Pricing on Navy Port Visits under Global Multiple Award Contract

Abstract

The Navy acquisition community has made significant strides in modernizing policies and contracting vehicles to better support U.S. warships and personnel with husbanding services both at home and abroad. Although much has been done to mitigate risks, reduce inefficiencies, and improve lag times in service provided, serious setbacks have occurred and continue to occur. The most prevalent of these examples can be seen in the Fat Leonard–Glenn Defense Marine Asia scandal to the most recent Multinational Logistics Services corruption case for services rendered in the Middle East, Asia, and other regions. This research investigates some potential shortfalls in the husbanding service provider services process while also providing insights into potential areas of improvement, scheduling efficiency, cost savings, and higher quality service port visits for U.S. Navy ships. The Husbanding Service Portal and the Global Multiple Award Contract strategy are two of the primary tools utilized to examine the correlation of pricing, competition, and performance in task order awards for overseas port visits across all platforms and port visit locations of U.S. Navy ships over the past 5 years . The authors have determined, based on the quantitative analysis, that it would be of great interest for Navy leadership to examine the data and findings within to better manage costs, improve audit compliance, and enhance warfighter operational readiness in the great power competition. The authors have concluded from their research that the Global Multiple Award Contract has resulted in significant costs savings due to increased competition compared to the previous Multiple Award Contracts, with the exception of a small group of port locations outlined in this research paper.