I wrote Admiral Boorda, Secretarys of the Navy O'Keefe and Dalton and darn near everyone else in Washington concerning this very serious matter which still bears the need for in depth impartial investigation. Senator Pryor's staff replied and Admiral Boorda took the personal time to carefully read my letter, reply in his own handwriting as follows and assign a member of his personal staff as my liaison - no one else, before or since has done that - he cared enough to act.
"Roger, I'm in agreement with your basic premise. I don't want to pay one cent more than something is worth and I want our contracting procedures to be correct and lead to lowest cost for value received. I have asked for a complete brief on this (I don't pretend to be an "expert" in this area). It would be helpful if you tell me of any disagreements you have with the audit done by the DOD IG to give me a better understanding before I take the brief. I want all our people to report and see results and will pursue this to see if anything remains to be done"
Unfortunately, he never was able to take effective further action before his tragic death in 1996. He had replied to the following handwritten note on the back of the letter to the magazine All Hands.
Admiral,
From what I have seen, you listen to people, you believe in accountability and you provide feedback. I brought this case to the personal attention of Bill Mackinson, NAVSUP 029 (the senior contracting official in the Navy Field Contracting System and its Competition Advocate). When he didn't do anything positive, I wrote Secretary (of the Navy) Sean O'Keefe. When his office lost my letter, I wrote DOD-IG (the Department of Defense Inspector General). They audited, but the Navy and Mackinson did everything possible to play it down and not get to the bottom of it. My frustration led me to Senator Pryor. He started to get to the bottom of it, but because of reduced staffing, he is relying on the Navy. Two IG's (the Navy Director of Special Inquiries) and NAVSEA's (Naval Sea Systems Command) are supposedly making inquiries. I have had no feedback from either. That concerns me. Thank you, for your attention.
RE: All Hands, July 1995, Cracking Down on Overpriced Parts
by Scott Fireoved, NAVSUP
As the former Director, Contracting Division, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, I was glad to see Scott's article. However, there is one aspect of overpricing which does not seem to have an advocate or review channel. That is the overpricing of services. The only avenue for questioning this seems to be calling the Hotline, and from personal experience, I have found this does not always work.
Sailors need to know that if they witness work by a contractor or consultant which does not seem to be worth what the Navy is paying for it that they should report it. There also needs to be an organization like Price Fighter which can impartially examine statements of work and the resulting contract prices to see if the Navy got fair value for its money.
Senator David Pryor, Ranking Minority Member, Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Services, Post Office and Civil Service, currently is seeking answers from the Navy on a series of sole source consultant contract orders for which the Navy appears to have gotten very little in return. These were flagged by me because senior personnel directed award of these orders to this firm without following the procedures dictated by law, the Competition in Contracting Act. Further, the contracting officer's responsibility to determine the price to be fair and reasonable was also usurped by these senior individuals.
Please, make the average sailor aware that services also can be overpriced and that this can result in substantial waste of the Navy's money. If you have any questions, please, call me at my home. Thank you.
Return to Coopers & Lybrand, Navy and TQM - Fraud or Mistake
Send mail to me at rhelbig@california.com