New Panel Convened to Streamline DoD Acquisition Regulations

The Department of Defense announced the establishment of the Advisory Panel on Streamlining and Codifying Acquisition Regulations, as directed by the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This panel is to conduct a "thorough and independent" assessment of acquisition regulations applicable to the Department of Defense.

DoD also announced that Deidre Lee, former Director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy and former Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) Administrator, is leading an 18 person panel which will be assessing regulations and associated laws to determine which are essential and which slow down the process unnecessarily. In addition to exploring possible regulation changes, the panel will also look for approaches to defense acquisition that are working well and should be expanded.

The Panel will have two years to complete their work, develop recommendations to amend or repeal regulations they determine necessary in order to:

• Establish and administer appropriate buyer and seller relationships in the procurement system
• Improve the functioning of the acquisition system
• Ensure the continuing financial and ethical integrity of defense procurement programs
• Protect the best interests of the Department of Defense
• Eliminate any regulations that are unnecessary for the purposes described.

For more information on this panel including biographies of all eighteen members, visit their website. The Panel includes a former director of the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) but unfortunately, no current or former representative from the contract audit community.