Defense Procurement Oversight: Better Looking Every Day

Legendary pro quarterback Joe Namath said he couldn’t wait for tomorrow because he got better looking every day. That’s sort of how we feel: We’re looking forward to the future because new acquisition provisions contained in the 2006 Defense Authorization Bill get more attractive every day.

The latest effort to plug holes in the acquisition process was again engineered by Republican Sen. John McCain, who last week quietly introduced a 13-page amendment (pdf). Earlier this year with a whiff of the Boeing-Air Force tanker scandal still in the air, McCain convinced the Air Force and Army to agree to restructure two contracts lacking in oversight and accountability – one for buying C-130J aircraft and the other for developing and acquiring the Future Combat System.

Now he’s attempting to turn the screws a little tighter. His new amendment would require the Secretary of Defense to guarantee to Congress that any future lease of a major weapons system would be the most cost effective way to procure it – which wasn’t the case in the Boeing tanker lease proposal.

It also would require the Pentagon to begin any major defense acquisition program with an “analysis of alternatives,” a comprehensive study that assesses a program’s desirability and affordability. There was no analysis of alternatives done on now defunct proposal for the Air Force to lease 100 tankers from Boeing.

Yet another provision of the amendment calls for the Defense Secretary to create new regulations that would essentially prohibit defense contractors who manage the development of large, complex weapons systems from adding profit through the process of awarding subcontracts.

All of these changes, if approved, can only be good news for taxpayers.

Comments

This Zach dude is right. Who are Eric and Scott and why should we care what they have to say?

[Nick at POGO]

Zach,

Here's a relatively recent Druyun-Boeing tanker lease scandal blog entry.

-Nick

[Zach]

Who are Eric, Scott and Druyun? Maybe I'm just a good ole boy from Georgia, but why does POGO think that these people will have even a little impact on a military industrial complex that prints money like it is the US treasury? Have you seen how Senator McCain has been treated recently by the establishment of the Republican party? They are so worried about him running for president in 2008 that they are going to stomp him.

[Nick at POGO]

Here's where we got the photo:

click here

Eric or Scott could probably better answer your question about the probability of better rules passing. All I have to say is anything's possible and if not now, in the wake of the Druyun scandal, then when?

[Zach]

Where did you get that old photo? Geez that's guy is so old I'm surprised the picture in color. But do you really think better defense procurement rules are going pass? I think you must be so old you're getting dementia.