Geurts: Authorities for smaller programs being given to PEOs, PMs

In an effort to decentralize decision-making, the Navy's top acquisition official has begun pushing down milestone decision authority for smaller acquisition programs to the program executive and program manager level.

Decision authority for acquisition category-2 programs was pushed down in February to the program executive officer level, Navy acquisition executive Hondo Geurts told Inside the Navy on the sidelines of a Washington conference today. That authority was originally delegated to the assistant secretary's level.

Geurts also said program executive officers are currently reviewing their ACAT-3 and ACAT-4 programs for consideration to push milestone decision authority to the program manager level. He expects to review their findings in April.

Decentralizing decision-making as a way to quicken acquisition has been a primary effort of Geurts since becoming the Navy's acquisition executive in December.