Army Tells IT Contractors: Check Is In the Mail

Kevin Carroll, the Army's Program Executive Officer for Enterprise Information Systems, (PEO-EIS) told Tech Insider that due to the fracas over the Defense Department's 2007 supplemental spending bill â€" an issue way above his pay grade and ours â€" he has put his contractors on a “slow pay” schedule, either on a quarterly or monthly basis.

Spending on PEO-EIS programs, which provide the Army with all kinds of widgets and gizmos, ranging from computers to tactical network gear, is focused primarily on supporting deployed or about to be deployed units, such as the Maryland National Guard, Carroll said. “Stay back forces”, Carroll said, are going to have to wait for equipment until a supplemental budget is approved.

Carroll's grand plans to develop and field Enterprise Resource Planning systems to support the tactical Army have been put on hold due to the funding crunch, he added. But that might be a blessing in disguise. Commercial enterprises find that it sometimes takes almost as long to field an ERP system as DOD has been working on the Joint Tactical Radio System.