HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- A top acquisition official within the Department of Defense shared words of appreciation for the Redstone Arsenal contracting workforce during his keynote address at the General Services Administration Acquisition Training Symposium at the Von Braun Center May 10-11, 2016.
"I do appreciate what you do. You should feel good about what you do at Redstone Arsenal. You are doing a heck of a job for the U.S. Army," said Shay Assad, who serves within the DoD as the director of Defense Pricing; and the principal advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (USD AT&L) and the Defense Acquisition Board on acquisition & procurement negotiation strategies for all major weapon systems programs, and major automated information systems programs.
Regardless of where DoD acquisition professionals are located, they all have the same job, Assad said.
"You all represent the taxpayers. The reality of life is our job is to take care of the taxpayer while making sure our warfighters are getting what they need," he said.
Assad is responsible for assisting the USD AT&L in the implementation of DoD's Better Buying Power initiatives. He is DoD's senior advisor for all program-related contract negotiation matters, to include multiyear contracting. He also serves as co-leader and proponent of the DoD's Pricing and Contracting Community.
In April, a story on Assad in Politico magazine said Assad has helped cut more than $500 million from military contracts through the scrutiny of contractor costs. Assad is well-known among employees at the Army Contracting Command-Redstone for his assistance in helping to save more than $3 billion in negotiated profits, part of the more than $10 billion saved in defense contracting in the past three years, said ACC-Redstone executive director Becky Weirick as she introduced Assad to the GSA symposium audience.
Assad described ACC-Redstone as "one of our major buying activities in DoD" and "one of the best buying activities in terms of saving money for taxpayers."
"This is a quality team," he said of ACC-Redstone. "You are one of the best teams we have. You do great work for the U.S. Army and the U.S. taxpayer."
Assad served six years as a Navy officer. His 40-year career in contracting was spent mostly as a Raytheon executive. Upon retiring in 2000 as the chairman and chief executive officer of Raytheon's Engineering and Construction, he entered federal service in 2004 and soon was promoted to director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy. In that position, he discovered an acquisition workforce that was "devastated" by the lack of training.
He worked to develop a training program to invest in DoD's acquisition workforce, convincing Secretary of Defense Bill Gates that "you invest in us and we will return that to the taxpayer 10 times over" and then, as Ash Carter became Secretary of Defense, Assad was promoted to his current position and the two teamed together to "start off on a journey to grow the contracting workforce."
Since 2009, the acquisition workforce within DoD has grown by more than 25,000 employees. In 2009, 35 percent of the acquisition workforce had advanced degrees, a number that has grown to nearly 70 percent today.
"The workforce is much more capable," Assad said. "We've made remarkable progress … We've got the folks in place to get the job done. But there's a lot of pressure on us now. The thinking is we are spending less so we don't need as many people. Instead of buying 200 PAC missiles, we are buying 187, but it's still the same amount of work."
Maintaining a staff of highly trained contracting officials are vital to continuing DoD's efforts to cut defense spending, purchase value for the taxpayers and provide the best equipment for service
members. Recent contract negotiations for multiyear deals led by Assad on the Apache helicopter, C-17 transport plane and F/A18 fighter jet saved more than $500 million for taxpayers. Assad credited ACC-Redstone with helping to save $500 million on the PAC 3 missile contract.
"People from Redstone made that happen," he said.
But, to continue to pursue ways to save money, the acquisition workforce must receive the training needed to fulfill their multiple contracting roles on a variety of different contracting actions. Assad praised the GSA forum, attended by 1,500 government acquisition employees, as a "fantastic opportunity to increase your professionalism."
Assad said issues with maintaining training levels, with increasing awareness of commercial item pricing and with fair pricing will be addressed within DoD. The acquisition workforce needs to know how to use market research and pricing techniques to determine fair pricing and market value for commercial items, he said.
Of the 13.5 million contracting actions last year, 11 million were for commercial items or services, Assad said, with DoD spending more than $50 billion on those commercial products.
"The largest single impediment to getting a good deal for the taxpayer is pressure to obligate money," he said. "The reality is there's a balance between obligating money and getting a good deal for taxpayers … We have to get things done in a timely way, but we also have to do the job. We have to do the cost analysis and look at pricing, and not be so focused on obligating money."
In 2004, when he joined federal service, the acquisition workforce was viewed as a community of shoppers who would pay any price for an item as long as it was less than the price budgeted.
"That's not who we are," Assad said. "We are not shoppers. We are professionals and our responsibility is to make sure the warfighter gets what they need when they need it and to take care of the taxpayers."
A successful acquisition employee is someone who is committed to being professional and to taking opportunities to grow in the profession, he said.
"You can be incredibly successful at ACC-Redstone over an extended period of time. There will be opportunities in your career. Immerse yourself in the profession and in the details. That's what makes a successful acquisition professional," he said.
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