Overseas Contingency Operations Contract after Iraq: Enabling Financial Managment Research and Transparency through Contract Labeling
Abstract
Project Title: Overseas Contingency Operations Contracts after Iraq: Enabling Financial Management Research and Transparency through Contract Labeling Prime Offeror: Center for Strategic and International Studies Principal Investigator: Andrew Hunter, Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group, and Senior Fellow, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies Abstract: How do contracts financed via crisis funds (including emergency funds) differ from other sorts of contracts, particularly with regard to sustainability as these funds wind down? The research problem of this proposed project is to illuminate these questions for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funded contracts beginning with those awarded in 2012 as well as for civilian crisis funds, primarily the American Recovery and Reconstruction Act (ARRA). Data on these contracts will be drawn from the Federal Procurement Data System, a publicly available database of U.S. government contracts. Effectively responding to a crisis often requires sharply increased spending and flexibility in waiving ordinary procedures. However, these short-term measures create issues of transparency and sustainability that surface when the crisis has passed. Today the public has no systematic means of differentiating OCO-funded contracts from those funded conventionally or of examining the issues associated with crisis spending even as this spending is being effectively routinized. For example, during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, funding for new equipment surged, but little long-term sustainment planning for this equipment was done. As spending declined and troops withdrew, sustainment issues emerged and decisions were made to keep or discard this equipment at a time of rapid drawdown in people and funding with limited public input. The proposed technical approach is to identify and label OCO-funded contracts and analyze statistically how these contracts and ARRA-funded contracts differ from the overall population of contracts. This analysis will control for whether contracts are administered by the DoD or civilian agencies and whether they are performed domestically or overseas. This study is expected to produce three primary results, each of which would provide significant public benefit. First, the labeling of OCO contracts would enhance understanding of the use of crisis funding in defense budgets, closing an important transparency gap. Second, this research will further public understanding of the operation of crisis funded contracts. Finally, the study team will examine the financial management of OCO contracts by examining both aggregate trends and the largest or most unusual contracts. The anticipated outcome of this proposed research is the closure of this fundamental OCO knowledge gap and a greater understanding of how to exercise sound financial management during crises. Public watchdogs and elected officials would benefit from better transparency for OCO funding, and further, in understanding the interactions of crisis spending with the challenge of managing overseas contracting.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 21, 2016
- Source ID
- N002441610008
Entities
People
- Andrew Hunter
Organizations
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- United States Navy