Photo By Mark Woodbury | Representatives from DCMA and DCAA discuss incurred cost audit status at DCMA...... read more read more
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FORT LEE, Va. - The partnership between the Defense Contract Audit Agency and the Defense Contract Management Agency has evolved over time. It allows the agencies to maintain and improve the acquisition enterprise to maximize the benefits to warfighters while efficiently apportioning resources.
Agency directors Charlie E. Williams Jr., DCMA, and Patrick Fitzgerald, DCAA, discussed the importance of continued and increased communication between the agencies. They stated that the communication has helped synchronize work to support each other and protect the Department of Defense’s interest.
DCAA and DCMA share a close partnership which was reinforced in a May 2010 joint memorandum reiterating the commitment to fair and reasonable contract prices for warfighters, the Department of Defense and taxpayers.
In December 2010, the two agencies presented changes to the Forward Pricing Rate process that better aligned the two agencies and provided customers with more consistency. These more frequent communications between DCMA and DCAA have ultimately developed into quarterly, senior-level meetings.
Quarterly Meetings Lead to Valuable Initiatives
Williams and Fitzgerald chair these quarterly meetings to synch up the agencies’ policies. The meetings build on the ongoing commitment to closer collaboration and are designed to help the professionals within the agencies share information and accomplish DOD’s business more efficiently. “We share information and topics of concern and let each other know of initiatives that we are rolling out,” said Joan Sherwood, Defense Contract Management Agency Cost and Pricing Division director. “We use the meetings to give the other our undivided attention.”
“The meetings are part of the ongoing partnership that has blossomed over the last few years,” Sherwood said. “Normally, we hear things about what DCAA is doing from the grassroots level. This meeting lets us clarify what is going on with each other.”
“We’ve always had a good relationship with DCMA, but our joint communication efforts are really helping make that relationship even better,” said John C. Shire, DCAA deputy assistant director of policy. These meetings are in addition to other efforts and partnerships between the two agencies. For example, on June 27, DCMA and DCAA met to discuss incurred cost audit status.
“Even though our HQs are a little further apart now geographically, we continue to work very closely to support the warfighter and protect the taxpayer,” Shire said. “These meetings allow senior leaders in both organizations to stay on top of numerous ongoing initiatives.”
“Our organizations share critical information, provide visibility to each of our active initiatives and encourage collaboration in executing our critical missions,” Shire said. “They set a tone at the top that we hope has a positive effect throughout each organization.”
These meetings have yielded steady results. “In a recent VTC, DCMA helped us realize that we weren’t putting a high enough priority on the audit of terminated contracts,” Shire said. “As a result, we are creating new agreed-to dates and milestone plans for these audits. Another good example is that we’ve been able to keep DCMA apprised of how DCAA is working through the incurred cost backlog, which gives them better visibility to their upcoming workload.”
Future meetings will continue to expand the partnership between DCAA and DCMA. Together, these agencies’ work will continue to improve significant initiatives such as CRI, incurred costs and refocus on terminations. “The better our level of communication, the better both organizations can complete their respective missions and increase our value to the warfighter and taxpayer,” said Shire.
Improving the Cost Recovery Initiative
In October 2010, DCAA and DCMA jointly established the Cost Recovery Initiative, which prioritized the organizations’ collective efforts to proactively recover costs and close audit issues. The continued quarterly meetings have provided the agencies a platform to make advancements in their approach to the CRI.
“The CRI is an umbrella and covers a lot of programs,” Sherwood said. “With DCAA’s help, we are using the initiative to aggressively go after pockets of money, such as settlement of account issues.”
“This initiative was a joint effort to focus on dispositioning Cost Accounting Standard non-compliances,” Shire said. “Largely because of our increased coordination with DCMA, more than 400 of the approximately 700 outstanding non-compliances have been resolved as of the end of May 2012. As a result, we are able to return millions of dollars to the department that can be redirected to support the warfighter and benefit the taxpayer.”
| Date Taken: | 08.23.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2012 12:50 |
| Story ID: | 95267 |
| Location: | FORT LEE, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 84 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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