What's Canada Buying? October 27, 2012

• F-35 Tug o’ War (1)  More on the latest call for another consultant  “The government is looking for another opinion of how it conducted the procurement of its replacement fleet of fighter jets, according to the Department of Public Works and Government Services.  In a statement released Friday, PWGSC claims that progress is being made in its seven-point response to the critical spring auditor general’s report, which found that neither PWGSC nor the Department of National Defence exercised due diligence in critical areas of the government’s procurement of the F-35 fighter jet.  Now, PWGSC has put out a Request for Proposal “to obtain the services of a firm to conduct an independent review of the steps taken up to June 2012 in the acquisition process for the replacement of the CF-18.”  The review has three goals, according to PWGSC.  First, it will determine “whether the shortcomings the auditor general identified in the acquisition process have been addressed.” It will also “confirm whether the steps taken in the acquisition process for the period up to June 2012 were in accordance with government policies, procedures and regulations.”  Finally, it will “provide lessons learned and propose recommendations for changes, if any, to current practices and policies for acquisitions of a similar nature.”  The contract for the independent review is expected to be awarded in December 2012 ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War (2)  South of the border, “The Pentagon is withholding $46.5 million from Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT), its biggest contractor, because of continued flaws with a business system used to track costs and schedules for the F-35 fighter.  The money held back was assessed against two F-35 production contracts and a smaller development agreement with the Israeli Air Force that’s managed by the U.S. The funds equal 5 percent of periodic billings against the contracts for reimbursement of money spent by the company performing the work ….”

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