DOD's Lee: "Get It Right" Means "Think" In tandem with GSA’s “Get It Right” initiative, the Defense Department is preparing new rules governing its use of GSA schedules and other multiple award contracts. Deidre Lee, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, said the department is not discouraging the use of those streamlined procurement vehicles, but is taking steps to ensure that they are used properly. “That means competition, in scope, and it’s going to take more than a day,” she told contractors at a conference sponsored by Input in Falls Church, VA, July 14. Lee pointed to the well-publicized contract for CACI to provide interrogators in Iraq, a procurement that took a circuitous route through the system. “I don’t know how an Army requirement was sent to the Department of Interior and it issued an order for interrogation services against a GSA (IT) schedule contract,” she remarked. “I don’t know how that happened.” She cautioned that contractors must make sure their government customer is following the rules. “If the task or item ordered is outside the scope of the contract, the contractor has the responsibility to notify the customer,” she said. “…And the other thing you can do is educate your workforce, as well. It’s no secret here that sometimes you will have very aggressive marketing people that will be marketing a particular vehicle. Let’s make sure they are marketing the correct vehicle.” “With revenue comes responsibility,” she added. Because of questionable practices in awarding some contracts in Iraq, Lee said the department faces criticism from Congress and the threat of new legislative restrictions on its purchasing practices. “Regulations we can change. Legislation, as you know, stays for a long, long time,” she said. “So I am a firm believer in, let’s self-regulate so that the Congress doesn’t feel like they have to legislate.” Congress in 2002 required the department’s procurement personnel to conduct an internal review before contracting through any non-DOD vehicle, such as the schedules, for services worth more than $100,000. Lee said she will require reviews on procurement of products as well as services. She said the internal review must consider three issues: •Does the procurement meet the customer’s needs? •Is the requirement within the scope of the contract vehicle? •Does the procurement follow all DOD regulations? She said the department has a number of rules that “follow the money” when DOD dollars are spent through other agencies’ contract vehicles. Lee said buyers must communicate those requirements to contracting officers on contract vehicles that are making purchases for DOD. She said DOD buyers will also be reminded to provide contracting officers with “multiple potential sources.” In recent years the department’s inspector general has documented widespread use of sole-source and directed-source contracts. She reiterated her support for GSA schedules and other multiple award contracts. She said of the new rules, “It does not mean slow down, stop. It means think.” She lampooned the use of GSA’s IT schedule to procure services only tangentially related to technology: “The building that houses the information technology is not a Schedule 70 item…. The bumpers that support the boat that is connected to a PC are not a Schedule 70 item.”