Operational contract support: actions needed to address contract oversight and vetting of non-U.S. vendors in Afghanistan: testimony before the ... and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate

OCLC Number: (OCoLC)747823276 Subject: Government contractors -- Afghanistan. Excerpt: ... determined how many of the remaining non-U.S. vendors that have already been awarded contracts valued above $ 100,000 will be vetted in the future, and at the same time, the number of vendors awarded contracts prior to vetting continues to grow as contracts continue to be awarded in Afghanistan by CENTCOM Contracting Command during fiscal year 2011. This may mean that the number of non-U.S. vendors who have not been vetted will continue to grow and further delayed by the fact that CENTCOM Contracting Command has also not established a timeline for when it will begin vetting vendors prior to award, nor have they developed an estimated number of prospective vendors that it anticipates vetting in the remainder of the fiscal year. Furthermore, the command does not use a formalized risk based approach to prioritize vetting needs. Officials from CENTCOM Contracting Command told us that they considered factors such as the risk, complexity, and nature of the contract to prioritize the first tranche of non-U.S. vendors sent to the cell for vetting, but they have no documentation identifying these considerations as a process. To address these vendor vetting limitations in Afghanistan, in our June 2011 report we made several recommendations to DOD. These recommendations included that CENTCOM Contracting Command consider formalizing a risk-based approach to enable the department to identify and vet the highest-risk vendors - including those vendors with contracts below the $ 100,000 threshold - as well as subcontractors, and to work with the vendor vetting cell to clearly identify the resources and personnel needed to meet the demand for vendor vetting in Afghanistan, using a risk-based approach. DOD concurred with our recommendations and in their response provided additional clarification about the limitations that currently exist on its resources, including limitations on expandin...