FORT GREGG-ADAMS, Va. –
Defense Contract Management Agency Cost and Pricing Regional Command directors recently presented agency Director Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Masiello, Deputy Director Sonya Ebright, and other senior leaders a status brief at their annual performance review.
Each of the six division/group directors under the direction of Mary Sheridan, acting executive director, and Thomas Forbush, acting deputy executive director, provided a command overview of their work products that support the CPRC mission to “Deliver superior cost and pricing insight supporting affordability and readiness for the Department of Defense and its partners.”
CPRC includes 838 personnel, of which 75% work remotely in 39 states and more than 400 cities. The command works closely with their agency counterparts in contracting offices across DCMA’s global landscape to provide pricing support and acquisition insight.
The fiscal year 2024 return on investment reported through March includes more than $2.9 billion in recommended savings and cost avoidance from evaluating contractor proposals. Actual dollars recovered to date reached $107 million in settlement of final Indirect Cost Rates, Cost Accounting Standards and Defective Pricing.
Mark Jones and LeeAnn Engle, director and deputy director of the CPRC Pricing Division, respectively, reported on increased demand in Proposal Pricing requests, expansion of Overhead Should Cost Reviews, known as OHSCRs, and efficiencies realized from reorganizations, which streamlined workloads in both major contractor networks and resident and geographic offices.
The primary functions of the 361 Pricing Division personnel include cost and price analysis and technical evaluations of contractor proposals, OHSCRs, and support to administrative contracting officers. Pricing and technical cases closed year-to-date totaled 1,855, resulting in $2.5 billion in recommended savings, and eight of 15 planned OHSCRs are complete or in progress. Jones and Engle also serve as objective owners for the agency’s Strategic Plan Line of Effort 3.2, focusing on leveraging tools and data to enhance affordability and value to acquisition stakeholders.
The CPRC Tools and Analysis Group includes 17 multifunctional professionals, including Group Director Shani Mack. This team administers mission-essential tools, including the Pricing Management Capability and the DoD-level Contractor Business Analysis Repository, or CBAR, in support of DCMA and DOD customers. The group supports 1,140 PMC internal users and over 12,000 CBAR internal and external users.
The team has conducted over 1,900 quality and compliance reviews of cost and pricing data, processes, and work products for continuous improvement through the second quarter of FY24. The Tools and Analysis Group is also responsible for line of effort program management within CPRC, compiling critical data, including ROI and workload modeling, as well as integrating 30 modernization projects under LOE 3.
The Commercial Item Group under Director Dan Hawley, provides commercial item determinations, price analysis, and strategic market research to DOD customers. This multifunctional team of 60 acquisition professionals has successfully supported over 460 customer requests in FY24, representing over $2.8B in total proposed value.
The CIG also supported multiple legislative proposals and hosted outreach events with DCMA customers and industry partners to spread commerciality expertise throughout the acquisition community. Hawley also serves as the objective owner for LOE 3.3, which focuses on employee development, retention, and recruitment.
Mission Support Office Chief Brenda Goodrich and her MSO team provide administrative support services in the areas of budget, travel, training, manpower, safety, and correspondence. Goodrich delivered an overview of recent accomplishments, including developing a Power App to automate Human Resources RPA data, which has been shared with multiple organizations. The team’s efforts are also represented in LOE 3.3, where they created a training portal for employees to increase their skills and encourage rotational opportunities.
CPRC’s Corporate Administrative Contracting Officer/Divisional Administrative Contracting Officer Acting Director Tabe Medill, leads a team of 349 pricing professionals engaged in establishing Forward Pricing Rate Agreements, known as FPRAs, and Recommendations, known as FPRRs; Direct and Indirect Cost Monitoring and Final Indirect Cost Rate negotiations; as well as oversight of contractors’ Cost Accounting Standards and Contractor Business Systems.
During this review, the team reported 99.64% of Indirect Costs covered by FPRR/FPRAs and $3.99 billion in Overage Contract Close-out dollars. Medill also serves as the objective owner for LOE 3.1, which focuses on streamlining the DCMA policies and processes in the pricing arena.
The Specialty Pricing Group, under the leadership of Director Bob Corso, is responsible for developing and sustaining agency expertise in the areas of Cost Accounting Standards, Insurance and Pension, and Financial Capability. During this performance period, the group reported a focus on high-value and high-risk work as part of LOE 3.1 support and organized a quarterly training forum on emerging Cost Accounting Standards challenges. The Specialty Pricing Group also worked to grow the Defective Pricing effort into a sustainable capability, providing Cost Recovery of $37.9 million to the DOD from fiscal years 2021-2024.
Throughout the performance review, CPRC highlighted innovative approaches that facilitate delivery of value to the DOD, the warfighter, and the taxpayer in alignment with DCMA’s third LOE: Drive enhanced value and affordability through modern, adaptive, and responsive cost and pricing capabilities.
CPRC’s value proposition was emphasized in the customer vignettes shared during the performance review, including highlights of a collaborative effort that illustrated a single OHSCR resulting in $658 million in recommended cost avoidance. Of this amount, 90% was sustained in the CACO/DACO Division’s Forward Pricing position.