Agencies work together to track contracts in war zones

Officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Defense and State departments told lawmakers on Wednesday that they are successfully working together to take full advantage of an interagency database that tracks wartime contracts and contractors.

Maureen Shauket, senior procurement executive and director of USAID's Office of Acquisition and Assistance, told a House Armed Services subcommittee that the agency has experienced steady progress with the Synchronized Predeployment and Operational Tracker database, particularly for Iraq contracts. She credited her counterparts at Defense and State for this achievement.

Defense and State "have been extremely receptive to working through these challenges with USAID," Shauket said. "Daily conversations are assisting us in moving forward with practical implementation of SPOT in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and we at USAID are committed to actively collaborating on these solutions."

Last year, Defense, State and USAID signed a memorandum of understanding pledging to implement the Web-based clearinghouse to keep track of war-related procurement, which was recommended in the 2007 Commission on Army Acquisition and Program Management.

"The MOU was intended to increase visibility across agencies and to enhance our ability to track contracts and contractors, to know where they are, what they are working on, how much we are paying them, and how that work is proceeding," said Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., at Wednesday's hearing. "The MOU also provides a framework to ensure that contractors who are traveling through the battle space do so safely, and that any contractors who commit a criminal act are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law by the appropriate agency."

William Moser, deputy assistant secretary of State for logistics management, said the agreement has helped elevate interagency cooperation and has fostered closer coordination on the ground among agencies. Gary Motsek, assistant deputy undersecretary of Defense for program support echoed Moser and Shauket, saying all three agencies have demonstrated good will in moving toward full cooperation, while acknowledging that completely fluid communication will not occur overnight.

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., noted that while a seamless federal effort in war zones is an important goal, patience and diligence will be crucial.

"We are not close to solving interagency coordination here in peacetime Washington, D.C. -- a far easier challenge than figuring it out under fire in a sovereign foreign nation," Wittman said. "We are literally experimenting as we go with new ways to meld the capabilities of the various elements of our federal government."

The Government Accountability Office has issued recommendations repeatedly urging agencies, particularly Defense, to improve oversight of wartime contracts and to track the large number of private sector personnel on the ground in contingency zones. John Hutton, GAO's director of acquisition and sourcing management, said SPOT represents a good opportunity for Defense, State and USAID, but they are still relying on separate, agency-specific tracking systems. Defense, for example, has continued to depend on a quarterly census of contractor personnel deemed more complete than SPOT, while USAID relies on ad hoc contractor surveys.

"Although their use of SPOT has increased, the database is not yet the agencies' primary means of obtaining data on contractor personnel, or contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan," Hutton said. "As they rely on other sources of information, the agencies have not used SPOT data to inform planning or management decisions with limited exceptions."

While the agencies still have room for improvement, Hutton said the database, when fully deployed, will provide decision-makers with a better understanding of their reliance on contractors, more thorough planning and more complete cost accounting. Motsek, Moser and Shauket assured lawmakers they were committed to continuing to work together to increase use of the database and to improve the ability of multiple agencies to better manage wartime contracts.

"We're playing together in the same sandbox," Motsek said.