McCord: DOD 'looking hard at service contractors'

Facing questions about the status of a report on services contractors, Mike McCord, the Pentagon's comptroller, said this week the Pentagon is "looking hard" at that area.

At a Tuesday House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (D), the delegate from Guam, asked about a report that would inventory all services contracts.

"In this extremely constrained fiscal environment, can we expect to see the department leverage the clear cost savings found in civilian personnel versus contractors?" she asked.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter told Bordallo DOD is "committed to reducing the strength, particularly of headquarter staffs, both civilian and contractor and, for that matter, military."

"Are we getting better at understanding how we're doing the spend for services contracting?" he added. "Yes, we are getting better at that."

McCord added that Peter Levine, deputy chief management officer at DOD, is leading the department's look at services contractors. However, he said he doesn't know the status of the report.

"You really look at whether you really need everything that you're doing," he said. "And that is an important part of our efficiencies effort for this budget."

As Inside Defense reported at the time, McCord first mentioned the DCMO-led review in February.