DOD renews effort to train 'thousands' who deal with services contracts

The Defense Department is renewing its efforts to train the "tens of thousands" of employees who deal with services contracts but are not fully trained to do so, according to Ken Brennan, deputy director of services acquisition.

The Pentagon has been standing up Service Requirement Review Boards for the past several years at the military service level and is in the process of establishing SRRBs for "fourth estate" entities managed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Inside Defense reported Jan. 19.

Brennan told Inside Defense last week that DOD is making an effort to institute "cultural change," so that SRRB members do not see "tripwires" as a reason to penalize a services contract or limit its spending. He noted that DOD has not set any "values" for specific tripwires and left much of the process to the discretion of military acquisition deputies.

"It is not -- and this is a focus area because we've seen this culturally -- it is not to be a brick wall. It is not to be a ceiling," he said.