thedrifter
02-28-08, 08:00 PM
Corps says it is working to address procurement issues
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, February 27, 2008
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps is working to address shortfalls in its process for getting urgently needed equipment to troops downrange.
In September, a Naval Audit Service report found the Urgent Universal Need Statement process, or UUNS, was “not effective.”
As a result, the Corps is expected to issue new guidance on exactly who is responsible for what in the process by the end of April, according to the report, which was obtained by Stars and Stripes.
A Marine Corps spokesman said Tuesday that he was not aware of any change to that time line.
The move was initiated prior to an internal paper dated Jan. 22, which said an urgent request for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in 2005 was turned down because of inherent problems with the “Byzantine” UUNS system.
The NAS audit looked at 29 requests for gear from January 2005 to August 2006, according to the report.
The report found that officials could not track requests for equipment because they had “limited visibility” on the process, there was also no single way to track such requests and officials got no feedback from downrange on the effectiveness of gear that was fielded.
“As a result, the effectiveness of the process could not be measured, the ability to accomplish the mission could be impacted, the potential exists for wasted resources, and delivery of the required UUNS requirements to Marine Corps warfighters could be delayed,” the report said.
Of the 29 requests that were examined as part of the audit, it took an average of six months for a request to work its way up the chain of command and be approved or turned down, the report found. That time does not include how long it takes to field and develop the equipment.
“We could not readily determine if a UUNS solution was actually fielded for the 29 sampled UUNS requests, because records were not maintained to show the date of fielding, or if the fielding actually occurred,” the report said.
Furthermore, no data was available on when 11 of the 29 requests were first made, the report said.
Even before the report was completed, the Corps began working to improve the UUNS system.
In October 2006, the Corps instituted a process that cut the time it takes to approve or deny a request after it has gone through the chain of command from 142 to 87 days, a reduction of about 39 percent, the report said.
Then the Corps introduced an improved tracking system for urgent requests in August 2007, the report said.
The UUNS system has come under fire recently after a Corps civilian employee alleged in an internal report that Corps officials turned down a request for MRAP vehicles because they were worried the request would take money away from other programs.
The Corps has asked the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office to look into the allegations made in the report.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway welcomes the review, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman on Tuesday.
“He thinks that some of these persistent accounts are inaccurate, and mischaracterizes what was going on inside the Marine Corps as they were looking at MRAPs and the development of MRAPs,” Whitman said. “And he is hopeful by asking someone from outside the Marine Corps to take a look at this, that he can help put some of those myths to bed.”
Reporter Lisa Burgess contributed to this story.
Ellie
By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, February 27, 2008
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps is working to address shortfalls in its process for getting urgently needed equipment to troops downrange.
In September, a Naval Audit Service report found the Urgent Universal Need Statement process, or UUNS, was “not effective.”
As a result, the Corps is expected to issue new guidance on exactly who is responsible for what in the process by the end of April, according to the report, which was obtained by Stars and Stripes.
A Marine Corps spokesman said Tuesday that he was not aware of any change to that time line.
The move was initiated prior to an internal paper dated Jan. 22, which said an urgent request for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in 2005 was turned down because of inherent problems with the “Byzantine” UUNS system.
The NAS audit looked at 29 requests for gear from January 2005 to August 2006, according to the report.
The report found that officials could not track requests for equipment because they had “limited visibility” on the process, there was also no single way to track such requests and officials got no feedback from downrange on the effectiveness of gear that was fielded.
“As a result, the effectiveness of the process could not be measured, the ability to accomplish the mission could be impacted, the potential exists for wasted resources, and delivery of the required UUNS requirements to Marine Corps warfighters could be delayed,” the report said.
Of the 29 requests that were examined as part of the audit, it took an average of six months for a request to work its way up the chain of command and be approved or turned down, the report found. That time does not include how long it takes to field and develop the equipment.
“We could not readily determine if a UUNS solution was actually fielded for the 29 sampled UUNS requests, because records were not maintained to show the date of fielding, or if the fielding actually occurred,” the report said.
Furthermore, no data was available on when 11 of the 29 requests were first made, the report said.
Even before the report was completed, the Corps began working to improve the UUNS system.
In October 2006, the Corps instituted a process that cut the time it takes to approve or deny a request after it has gone through the chain of command from 142 to 87 days, a reduction of about 39 percent, the report said.
Then the Corps introduced an improved tracking system for urgent requests in August 2007, the report said.
The UUNS system has come under fire recently after a Corps civilian employee alleged in an internal report that Corps officials turned down a request for MRAP vehicles because they were worried the request would take money away from other programs.
The Corps has asked the Defense Department Inspector General’s Office to look into the allegations made in the report.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway welcomes the review, said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman on Tuesday.
“He thinks that some of these persistent accounts are inaccurate, and mischaracterizes what was going on inside the Marine Corps as they were looking at MRAPs and the development of MRAPs,” Whitman said. “And he is hopeful by asking someone from outside the Marine Corps to take a look at this, that he can help put some of those myths to bed.”
Reporter Lisa Burgess contributed to this story.
Ellie