D
r. Jacques S. Gansler chaired the Commission on Army Acquisition and Program Management in Expedition-
ary Operations, appointed by then-Secretary of the Army Pete Geren in 2007 to review the lessons learned in recent operations and to provide forward-looking recom- mendations to ensure that future military operations would achieve greater effective- ness, efficiency, and transparency.
The
Gansler Commission, as it is known, assessed processes and explored legislative solutions to ensure that the Army is properly equipped for future expeditionary operations, and in October 2007 released its pivotal report. This Q&A is reprinted and updated with permission from ACC Today magazine (
http://www.acc.army.mil/today/).
Q. The Army has had about four years to implement the recommendations made by the Gansler Commission. What is your assessment of the Army’s progress toward implementing the recommendations?
A. Our final report lists “Four Key Ele- ments to Future Success (see sidebar on Page 105). Points 1 and 2 are well on the way to being completely implemented. Point 3, with respect to providing train- ing and tools, still needs further work. Point 4, with respect to obtaining legis- lative, regulatory, and policy assistance, I believe is moving slowly, and I don’t feel there is sufficient push at the Army Secre- tariat level.
Q. The commission recommended that the Army should “establish a separate, centrally managed Contracting Corps (not Branch) for Army military and civil- ian contracting personnel.” What’s your assessment of the Army’s efforts regarding this recommendation?
A. The purpose of this recommenda- tion was to separate contracting from
AN ESSENTIAL ROLE
The Gansler Commission report focused heavily on improving the stature and increasing the quantity of contracting personnel, both military and civilian. Here, MAJ Isaac Torres of the 413th Contracting Support Brigade, Contract Officer for Exercise Garuda Shield, meets with a local Indonesian vendor to discuss materials needed to complete the humanitarian civic action project in Situ Gede, during the exercise in June 2011. Sponsored by U.S. Army Pacific and hosted by the Indonesian armed forces, Garuda Shield is an annual, bilateral exercise. (Photo by SPC Elizabeth Cole.)
acquisition. The establishment of the Army Contracting Command was an extremely positive step. However, in terms of promotion boards, career paths, etc., I believe contracting is still part of the acqui- sition area and is not a “separate” corps. One of the purposes for recommend- ing the establishment of a major-general director of the Army Contracting Corps was to get at this recommendation.
Q. The Commission on Wartime Con- tracting released its report in August 2011. Your committee released its report four years ago. What have you observed dur- ing the past four years that you hoped the CWC would include in its report?
A. The CWC incorporates into its report [Transforming Wartime Contracting: Con- trolling Costs, Reducing Risks, online at
http://www.wartimecontracting.gov/] recommendations to completely imple- ment “The Four Key Elements to Future Success” listed in our report. Also, as I stated in my recent testimony to the CWC, they should emphasize the impor- tance of the government’s contracting workforce, but not (as their report was
titled) focus on “the risk” of contractors, who are an essential element of expedi- tionary operations.
Q. An outcome of the Gansler Com- mission was the creation of the Army Contracting Command, which includes the Expeditionary Contracting Command for support in contingency environments. What are your thoughts on how the Army Contracting Command and Expedition- ary Contracting Command are doing?
A. In our report, we did not recommend that the Life Cycle Management Com- mand acquisition centers be assigned to the Contracting Command. We recom- mended that the Contracting Command be given directive authority. The Army Materiel Command has assigned the LCMC acquisition centers to the Con- tracting Command.
My concerns are that the issues involved with procuring major weapon systems dilute the Contracting Command’s focus on contingency and expeditionary con- tracting. During our deliberations, this was a very contentious point on which
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CONTRACTING
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