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Director Sheley is responsible for managing all corporate and divisional administrative contracting officers for the Department of Defense (DoD). A Contracting Officer is the appointed executive branch agent responsible for all aspects of a government contract and is the only person specifically authorized to enter into, administer, or terminate a contract, and make related determinations and findings on behalf of the government. DCMA’s stated mission is to be “the independent eyes and ears of the DoD and its partners, delivering actionable acquisition insight from the factory floor to the front line … around the world.”
After reviewing changes in DCMA’s organizational structure and administrative personnel, the Director laid out DCMA’s current priorities. These included:
- Increasing the number of forward pricing agreements in place
- Settling older final incurred cost rates and Quick Close Out Rates (QCOR)
- Resolving outstanding cost accounting standards (CAS) issues, e.g. disclosure statements, potential non-compliances and cost impacts
- Improving the timeliness of business system determinations
While increasing the number of forward pricing rates is a strategic plan initiative, settling old incurred cost rates and QCORs are especially important. Critical to this priority is the Defense Contract Auditing Agency’s (DCAA) ability to complete its incurred cost audit backlog through FY 2014 by September 30, 2017, as they have projected. To do this may require DCAA to do three years of audits simultaneously (they have been doing a limited number of two year audits hitherto). If this does not happen, DCMA will pursue a FAR waiver from Defense Procurement Acquisition Policy (DPAP) to close out years without audits if the risk can be adequately dealt with through a decrement.
Director Sheley then explored some of the areas where DCMA saw opportunities to partner with contractors, including establishing an efficient process for moving from forward pricing rate proposals to agreements, ensuring that DACO/CACO is represented at all meetings with DCAA to expedite audits, and establish an understanding of “costs in motion”. In addition, she briefly reviewed a breakdown of business system disapprovals, explained the functioning of Boards of Review and recounted the difficulties that contractors may face in the use of blended compensation caps. Throughout her presentation, she answered CGB member questions and engaged in a lively to-and-fro discussion.
A number of other individuals gave presentations during the meetings. Steve Knight of Smith, Pachter and McWhorter reviewed acquisition-related legislation, regulations and case law that have surfaced since the last meeting, and Laurie Schmidgall, Director of Cost Policy at Boeing, gave a report on CAS Board activities. Ms. Schmidgall also announced that she has been reappointed as the industry representative on the CAS Board for a second four year term, thus extending a very long tradition of CGB sourced representatives on this White House led institution. FEI adds its congratulations to Ms. Schmidgall for her achievement.