STUDENT 1 (Jeremy):

Forum Questions:

1. Define the Defense Contract Management Agency’s and Defense Contract Audit Agency’s role.

The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) is an independent watch dog for the DoD, and affiliates, which enables the warfighter ability, with timely logistics, and product delivery, while supporting cost effective resources and readiness.

The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) works in conjunction with the DCMA, buy providing and advisory and audit services to the DoD, and affiliates when the call is made. The DCAA also determines if a contracts cost is allowable, allocable, or even reasonable, this service saves the tax payers millions.

1. Describe how a Defense Contract Audit Agency audit report can help meet a negotiation objective.

The DCAA is a great asset when working through contracts, as the DCMA works with the contracting officer (CO) once the contract is sent forward, the DCAA steps in to audit and validate the information and costs are accurate and effective for the warfighter. This is the critical step, because if the auditor finds ad error or possible savings. they can send this to the DCMA for review, but this does not hold a legal binding contract to the government as the contractor.

1. Search for a recent, within the last five years, defense contract audit report and explain the reasons for the audit, the findings and possible impact in today’s defense contract audit agency role within a new President and Defense Department administration.

The article I found was over the actions of CO’s in relation to the DCAA suggestions and recommendations. This issue that arose was the negligence of a few CO’s in providing relevant responses to the DCAA’s recommendations, and the lack of attempting to sustaining the DCAA reported questions costs. This issue is the tax payers, and the Presidents desires are harmed by the lack of available funding, and the new members to the Defense Department administration are lacking the budget needed due to miss appropriations.

References

Evaluation of Contracting Officer Actions on Defense Contract Audit Agency Reports that Disclaim an Opinion. (2019). Retrieved from https://media.defense.gov/2019/Dec/02/2002218761/-1/-1/1/DODIG-2020-036_REDACTED.PDF

STUDENT 2 (Zabi):

1. Define the Defense Contract Management Agency’s and Defense Contract Audit Agency’s role.

Defense Contract Management Agency produces and delivers equipment and supplies to warfighters they need to fight, get trained, and survive. Although, they are not producing equipment directly, but the agency works closely by providing contract administration services to the Department of Defense, other federal organizations, and international partners. They oversee the award process from pre-award closing the award. Around 12,000 employees work at DCMA and manage contracts valued at more than $7 trillion worldwide. They are considered the eyes and ears of the DoD and its partners.

Whereas, DCAA is responsible to oversee audit and financial services of DoD and other agencies responsible for purchasing and managing contracts. According to the DCAA website, they are responsible to ensure the best value for the funds spent on DoD contracts, but I found their role to be considered critical to investigate fraud in contracts and prevent waste of resources.

2. Describe how a Defense Contract Audit Agency audit report can help meet a negotiation objective.

DCAA’s role is and services are obtained during the implementation or after the closeout of the award. I don’t think if they will have any role in the pre-award process to consider the negotiation objectives. But they help a negotiation objective by reviewing the processes in place and whether the contract terms and conditions are followed or not. They ask a few tough questions that impact the project objectives. Few examples are, how the best value was evaluated during the award process? Does the contractor have the capacity to deliver quality goods/services? Did they meet the expected delivery timeline? If answers are no, recommendations are provided to each area which helps meet a negation objective and, in some cases, they saved millions of taxpayers’ money.

3. Search for a recent, within the last five years, defense contract audit report and explain the reasons for the audit, the findings, and possible impact in today’s defense contract audit agency role within a new President and Defense Department administration.

I pulled a recent audit report for the years ended September 30, 2019, and 2018. They have audited the consolidated balance sheet of DCAA that includes statements of Net Cost, Changes in net Position, and Combined Statement of budgetary resources. There were no major findings and the report concluded that the financial statements present fairly and DCAA is in a good position in all financial respects. The net costs, net position, and budgetary resources were in a generally accepted accounting principle. I didn’t find a major finding of concern in the report to analyze possible impacts within a new President or DoD administration. But I think the agency is performing excellent and the new president and DoD administration must continue to work closely with men and women serving this country in every role.

https://www.dcma.mil/About-Us/

https://www.dcaa.mil/

https://www.dcaa.mil/Portals/88/DCAA_FY2019_Final_Audit_Report.pdf