Intercepts

Fixated on Firm Fixed Prices

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy may have announced plans this month to abandon its attempts to restrict how the Defense Department buys information technology services, but the issue is still alive and well. Experts are now focusing on how — or whether — OFPP should continue to fight this battle.

The issue is whether officials should place restraints on IT service buys based on time and materials.

The problem with such task orders, OFPP and procurement experts suggest, is that they do not support efforts to use performance-based contracts. Labor-hour contracts typically don't include an end goal. Instead, they essentially provide the people to work on a particular job.

But many experts question whether regulations are necessary at all.

"I'm not even sure if this is an appropriate" approach for binding regulations, said Steve Kelman, a professor of public management at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a former administrator of OFPP during the Clinton administration.

The issue could be better addressed through improved management, said Chip Mather, senior vice president of Acquisition Solutions Inc. and a former Air Force procurement executive. OFPP could put forward management guidelines and then instruct agencies to track and justify all labor-hour buys, he said.

Also, most procurement experts suggest that even if OFPP's ban were to go into effect, it would only have an impact on General Services Administration's schedule task orders. And they wonder why.

If the goal is to reduce the types of buys that provide power to the people, why not impose rules on all governmentwide acquisition contracts? "From a policy perspective, that's a very fair question," Kelman said.

Laptops on the Loose

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations is searching for two missing laptops, including one with classified data. Both disappeared from Central Command, which orchestrates the war in Afghanistan.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking at a Pentagon news briefing, said investigators have not yet determined if the computers were stolen or are simply missing.

"The good news is that they were in a single room...where access is tightly controlled," Myers said.

The laptop flap occurred just days after a Justice Department audit found that more than 400 of the department's laptop computers had gone missing or were reported stolen.

Not to worry. At DOD, it's possible to buy a new laptop using a government-issued credit card, right?

The Best Offense Is ... Vague

We've been inquiring, pleading really, for more details about DOD's evolving strategy to go on the offensive in a cyberwarfare situation.

It seems as if we have an answer...sort of. A spokesperson for U.S. Space Command, owner of the Joint Task Force-Computer Network Operations, last week issued the following: "Coordination is ongoing to develop the concept of operations for active defense; define roles, responsibilities and authorities; and establish unambiguous rules of engagement. We are proceeding with the necessary prudence and caution that this sensitive initiative deserves."

A spokesperson for DOD acknowledged that the statement wasn't exactly heavy on details, but said it was issued to keep at bay the many people who try to hack into DOD systems on a daily basis.

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